Never Can Win
by BattleStations
Summary: She'd been minding her business, saying her goodbyes. SHE didn't make the ceiling collapse. Yet he was still glarring like the best of them. Good Lord, man.
1. Sally the hobo

_Please excuse my first attempt at handling the complex world of Harry Potter on my own. I hope J.K Rowling doesn't mind my intrusion into her characters lives. _

Maybe I shouldn't have done that.

He glared at me and I felt like he'd dunked me into an ice bath. His eyes were breathtaking, I couldn't help it. Like smoke filled spheres. They were filled with such indignant shock and instant distaste; I was in a state of awe with how much emotion could be packed into a single dirty look.

I hastily gave him his arm back and smoothed my thin dull coat suddenly very conscience of the way I looked. He should be the last person to know how taken back I had been with his stare. It had been so obviously unfriendly, I was a little pushed when I had so quickly shaken off the scathing exterior and focus on the beauty of his hate. He was still starring at me, trying to place where he knew me. It's happened to me on many occasions, I keep my head down, dress blandly. I was to be a simple unimportant glint in the brightness of life. I made it a habit to be unremarkable; I wouldn't be able to complete my job if it was easy to remember me. His initial glare was lessening, but he still looked displeased with my sudden interference. I had to struggle with myself to not fidget under his gaze; I knew exactly who he was, my thoughts even more embarrassing with the fact. I really shouldn't have done that. I could tell he knew me as well, the feeling was there, almost like deja-vu, he was having trouble placing my name and where he remembered me from. I seemed to have done a passable job of living in a fog of gray. Somehow, I didn't feel too pleased.

I quickly looked down at my hands, avoiding his stare. I wouldn't help him with that memory problem. He tried to catch my eye again. Honestly, I didn't want him to remember who I was. I wanted him to shrug what I'd done off and walk away. Preferably, I'd like him to forget me. I'd hate for him to see what had passed through my thoughts, for him to be able to read a persons face as I'd been taught.

I felt his stare leave me and I chanced a look upward, he was looking at the mess around us, the baggage spread around the terminal, the few people sprawled on the ground, others kneeling beside them. Charlie was still sitting on the ground beside my feet. Her long legs tangled under her skirt, her bag forgotten behind her. I'd pushed her down before it happened, but without thinking, I'd grabbed the man that was passing us and pulled him a few feet to the side. Large beams from the ceiling lie just feet away from us, reminding us of our fortune. Dust and debris snowed around us, blanketing the stunned people of the airport. I could feel the white dust weighing in my hair, gathering on my shoulders. I glanced at Charlie and a small pile slid off my nose.

No one was hurt. A woman yelled of the miracle, distracting the ice-eyed man enough for me to pull Charlie up and quickly move away, disappearing in the crowds. A cape of white dust was following behind us, billowing through the stunned crowds.

"What the hells going on?" Charlie asked desperately, catching her bag as I swiftly guided her through the confusion. She easily towered over me, her six foot frame and beautiful presence achieving everything I was forced to subside in myself. She was such a remarkable woman; anyone to have even glanced her would remember every detail of her person.

"This isn't right Charlie." I breathed quietly. "This wasn't supposed to happen, something's _wrong_." I whispered. I was becoming just as confused as the others rushing into the terminal to see the damage. Their eyes wide, frantic questions filled my ears, intercepting with my thought process. How was I supposed to think through this properly? "Charlie," I stopped, dragging her with me against a wall away from prying ears. "I have to get you out of here."

"Hey!" The shout barely made it through the chaos boiling around the hall. The voice was smooth, even with the wild surroundings. It carried an indignity of someone not used to shouting.

My head snapped at the yell. It fit perfectly with a pair of icily grey eyes I had not long ago ran from. I could see the white blond head looking over the many hats and hairdos rushing through the wide hall. He'd followed us, he'd found me. Charlie's eyes widened, she recognized him too.

"Bathroom, Apparate. Bathroom, Apparate" She breathed a few times making a mantra of it and taking her turn to drag me around. Her bag was widely swinging in the crook of her arm. Her pace a mad rush. I was glad she understood the severity of our problem.

With the shock of the collapsing ceiling, the talk of terrorists, whispers of bombs, the halls of the large airport were crazy. People were screaming for no apparent reason at all. But the bathrooms were empty; the loud madness of the airport became only a buzz of sound in the tiled room. As soon as I was dragged clear of the door, I slipped from Charlie and pushed with everything I had against the door. He had been right behind us, following the trail Charlie had forced through the crowd. I heard him grunt as I held the door shut. I felt my inadequate muscles strain against his brute force.

I wildly looked to Charlie and she understood. Her blond hair was a wispy tangle from our retreat, and her clothes had developed creases from running. He was pushing the door open; of course he was stronger than me. My feet were sliding back, the tiles too slick to get a firm grip on. Nearly falling forward, Charlie took a firm hold of me, and we disappeared with a loud crack, like a car backfiring. The encased bathroom intensified the sound ten fold and screams of another attack filled my ears as we disappeared.

My stomach fell with a sour sting. Not because of the uncomfortable trip that comes with all Apparations, but because of the strong grasp a familiar arm had made around my own, locking in an unfamiliar knot of bone and flesh. It was the arm I had grabbed to pull away from the falling roof. The arm of a known Death Eater. The arm of Draco Malfoy.

Ah, shit.

I should start at the beginning. My best friend, Charlie, always liked to refer to my life as a real sob story that happened to make you laugh and feel sorry for me (a long title); I forget why she's my best friend a lot. I couldn't have cared less though. Abandoned. My parents weren't the best people to allow to have kids. But I was lucky; this really amazing bum named Sally took me in. He'd been the best adult figure I crossed during my childhood. He raised me from four –when my parents dumped me—to eleven, all the way up to the day I'd gotten my letter. He was tall, chestnut haired and had a light golden complexion that convinced me he was an angel throughout my early childhood. He saved me after all.

Before then, we'd like to hang out in France. The warm beautiful weather agreed considerably with sleeping outside, especially along the southern coasts. I'd picked up pocketing like a natural in those years. Sally was one of the most intelligent people I'd ever met. He taught me all the important stuff, everything from accessing people who carried the most cash to getting free taxi trips through London. He had been struggling with life when he came across me, alone at the entrance of an ally between a prestigious advertising company and McDonald's. I had stood crying with my child size sleeping bag and Elmo backpack filled with Cheeze-its and a Tang juice pack. Again, great parents I'd had. They actually gave me ten pounds too, but they had dumped me in Greece.

Sally let me carry his kitten, June, and I stopped crying. I haven't look back. Sally saved me that day, I hated to think what would happen if someone else had noticed the crying toddler.

Sally's real name was Richard Lucas Muntrealas. He owned a small shipping company in Spain a few years before he picked me up. But when his wife died, he gave the company to his cousin and left to wander Europe like a nomad. He had never been comfortable on the subject of his wife; she had died way too young. But I was lucky Sally decided to go out abroad. How else would he have found me?

When I asked him about his name, he told me that when you turn to the streets, you always need a new name. Two years later, Sally took up a small office job with a cannery in Romania and we stayed in a nice apartment. It'd turned out that Sally had made a stable and safe environment for me so he could adopt me. I was thrilled the day our papers were approved. I was then the proud seven year old Annabelle Hazel Muntrealas, legal daughter of Sally the environmental engineer, like I knew what that was. I picked up my life long accent in Romania, the one feat I seemed unable to hide about myself; my accent became a liability, a memorable characteristic people couldn't seem to forget no matter how hard I tried. So I made it a habit to not to speak around people who were better off not remembering me. It would only bite them in the ass later anyway.

So for a few more months, while child services observed us, Sally kept his head up and made a name for himself in the research of dead zones in the Mediterranean Sea. Again, as if I even knew what those were. He made a few conferences here, a speech there. We thrived, simple and happy.

I woke up one night; a cold sweat covering my small body, Sally had rushed in when I screamed. I remembered that night a bit too clearly then I liked, I had truly believed in my ability after that night. Crying and clutching to Sally's bed shirt with my tiny fists, I begged him not to go to work the next day at the cannery. He was going to finish a report with some co-workers in the morning. He swore he wouldn't stay long, but I wouldn't let him go until he promised he wouldn't go to work. I was too scared to tell him why, my dream had been horrible. The next morning Sally sat with me on the couch eating pancakes as we watched the news, the cannery had caught fire early that morning. For the second time in less then a few hours, I'd watched the rushing orange flames stretch to touch the sky out of every window in the entire cannery, the tin walls of the canning building melting over the trash bins along the sides. The office section, where Sally had worked, was indistinguishable among the white hot flames. I cried again. We disappeared after that.

Far past the probation period of my adoption, we slipped over to Eastern Europe to be happy bums again. I went to an English speaking school in France for a while, but the teachers were too strict, and they deeply disapproved of my immense imagination I felt I needed to share with the other children. Later, I realized my thick Transylvanian accent had made me a lesser being in the eyes of the snooty, over paid, teachers. We left there after five weeks. We hadn't picked the best place to stop in France.

After that, Sally mostly just taught me everything he knew, and the rest we picked up together in a library in London. I loved London. I finally got to spend that ten pounds. But rain's not a happy bum's best friend; we liked to stick to Southern France. But when the mood had struck us, Sally and I finally saved up to catch a ride over to Spain as soon as we could. It was where Sally was from after all. Buying tickets for a ride over to Spain had taken a year. I convinced Sally to get tickets for a later trip once we managed. The first boat –that we were going to take—had engine failure and they had sat dead on the water for ten hours before someone came to tow them in.

From when I turned eight to ten and a half, we lived in a small home Sally actually owned off the coast of Spain. It was a beautiful house from his past life; he never was thrilled to be inside those walls. I got my first job in Spain; tourists paid me to translate for them at the markets. It was great, I was happy. Spain has always been my absolute home, the people were nice, and they didn't mind my accent, didn't mind my foreign appearance.

But Sally was sick. And Spain didn't have what he needed. Dressed in my best skirts and Sally in his best suit, we walked away from the lovely Cliffside house down the stone driveway and back into prejudice.

I always miss Spain, where I can remember Sally best.

We were back in London for Sally's treatment. He had heart disease, it ran in his family. Sally was all I had; I sat with him in the hospital reading him books I'd checked from our favorite library. I could always tell him when we'd be getting a new nurse, or the color his gelatin would be that day. Ever since the fire, I'd never had a full blown…..vision I guess they're called. I could only see what immediately would be happening, and nothing important. Though Sally always told me it was very important he knew what color his Jell-O would be, goodness forbid he ever got green if he wasn't readily prepared for it.

"Emma." I'd told him one night.

"What sweetie?" he asked, I could tell he was ready to drift off to sleep.

"I love you, Sally." I whispered, I was crying again. I've lost a lot of tears over the years.

"Oh Annie." He said reaching his arm out for me to hug him. I willingly fell into his embrace and hugged him as tight as I dared.

I woke up in the cardio waiting room with a small brown owl starring me in the face.

I'd turned eleven two weeks earlier. Sally had given me the large heart shaped locket he had always kept under his shirt. The irony had made me cry. The chain allowed the heart to hang a few inches above my belly button. I'd woken up clutching the locket, a musty smelling letter near my nose, and an owl softly hooting for me to wake.

It was addressed to 'Miss Annabelle Hazel Muntrealas, Catholic Health Center, Cardio Waiting Room, The Three Seats Between the Fichus and Goldfish. '

I had glanced around me in wonderment at the weird plant and small aquarium on either side of the chairs I'd slept on. I'd thought we were being stalked or something. I grabbed the letter by one of the corners and ran to Sally's room holding it away from my body; I knew it wasn't visiting hours yet, but he had to see the letter, it was crazy.

Emma Northing, Sally's new nurse stopped me from entering the room. He'd died. Richard Lucas Muntrealas died at forty three, left everything he owned to me, an abandoned toddler he's found one day wandering the streets of a large city in Greece.

I sat alone at the funeral; I'd buried him in Spain, with his wife. He had a small family, a few cousins and an uncle. I recognized some homeless we'd met over the years but that was it. I considered myself dead as well that day.

I staked out in our house over the cliffs and wasted my days watching the ocean, the sunrise, watching the sunset. The letter lay forgotten on a table, unopened. Days later, during the suns highest point, the weather was warm, the tourists were in full swing, and another owl visited me. It was a large grey thing, it perched itself on the thick beautiful rock railing that separated the houses occupants from the short cliffs fall. The rather un-proportional thing had dropped another letter in my lap then took off. I had ignored it, my eyes glazed over, watching the waves peak off in the distance.

I remembered it had taken six owls, in broad daylight, to get me to look at the letters. They all said the same as far as the address went.

'Miss Annabelle Hazel Muntrealas, 1081 Cliffside Manor, Back Porch against the Sliding Door'

Again, I wondered how they could have pinpointed me so well. I lifted my hand before another large owl could nip my fingers; it seemed annoyed that I had moved. A smaller owl landed on my knee and had hooted encouragingly, if not a bit annoyed as well. I'd sighed, straightened my legs, and ripped the damn thing open. Life's never quite been the same.

A school off in Britain had accepted me for their next term and would have been "delighted" to have me. A piece of paper at the bottom had caught my attention, I mean beside the schools name having been Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The writing was from another hand. A man named Dumbledore –the headmaster—would be visiting me personally to answer questions and help me gather what I needed. I remembered being stunned that the _Headmaster_ would be visiting me, I wasn't special. Then at the end of the letter, he had said the small dark brown owl seemed to be fond of me and that I could keep him. I'd named him Rich.

A stock man –that Dumbledore "fully trusted"—shoved me through the brick post and I was off into a world Sally had told me stories about ever since the cannery caught fire. A world he told me would accept me just as much, and maybe more, then Spain had. His world.

Of the first on the train hidden inside a brick post, I took a compartment to myself, and ended up traveling to Hogwarts alone. No one had even asked to sit with me. My trunk sat on the seat across from me –I was too small to lift it above into the carrying rack—and my owl was already at the school. I didn't have a cage for him, neither of us minded, somehow he always knew if I needed to write a letter, which was not often.

The first week of my magical school experience I had spent friendless, quiet. I didn't understand why. I was short, yes, but who cares. I'd had short dark brown waves of hair and green eyes, I was blessed with a clear face, a constant faint tan from my travels, and it was impossible for me to gain weight. I thought I was pretty, Sally said I was beautiful, even the doctors said I was a lovely young lady! Had I smelt bad in my adolescence?

I still sounded like I came from ancient Transylvania though, a few other accents hinted along with it. I could hardly believe that could have been it. The big glaring default of Annabelle.

Smart, short, overlooked. I became the invisible Ravenclaw girl. Thank the stars Charlize Amelia Woodrow finally noticed me. I lived through some of the most awkward years of my life in that school. And Charlie was always with me. Tall, blond, and absolutely gorgeous Charlie.

Now seventeen, a small job, a lovely apartment and completely rid of Hogwarts, I was sitting at a small coffee shop with Charlie, the kind of shop people managed to titter on the sidewalk with tiny metal chairs and tables. We were saying goodbye.

I didn't know what to say. Her brown eyes were already watering and I couldn't help the chain reaction. We had just celebrated her eighteenth birthday a few weeks ago, now she had her bag at her feet and we were trying to spend her last hours in Europe together before she had to hop a plane to New York.

Charlie unfortunately hadn't done very well at school, my stories of the non magical life had sparked some hope in her, and now my accidental model friend was being shipped off. We knew we wouldn't be seeing each other for a very long time. I told her about my dream.

"Oh Annie." The tears flowed; she sounded almost exactly how Sally had. Her own tears pilled over once I broke, we instantly pulled out handkerchiefs and switched to dab at our cheeks. "I don't want to go." She suddenly said. I couldn't have that; she had such a great thing ahead of her.

"Charlie," I said reasonably. "You have to, you know what's going to happen around here." I told her what she already knew. "You won't be safe."

"And what about you?" she asked miserably.

"I'm not sure." She frowned unhappy with my answer. "But I'm part of it, you know that." I said folding her handkerchief to distract myself from her face. "If anything, I have to do what Dumbledore wanted me to." I said sadly. We both looked down. Dumbledore had looked after me during my school years, helping me with my "gift", keeping it secret. I couldn't ignore what he'd asked of me. Especially since he died my sixth year. The worst part was that Charlie was sitting there and had no idea what I was really talking about. She wasn't allowed to know what I really had done for Dumbledore during our years at Hogwarts.

After a moment, Charlie looked up. She seemed to be mustering up to something. With a puff she shot her left hand out to me.

"Am I going to get married?" She suddenly asked, I could tell she was holding her breath as she looked off to the side, unable to look me in the eye. She was embarrassed. I smiled grudgingly grabbing her offered hand.

"Nope!" I told her with a plastered grin after a moment of fake searching. She let out her breath and smiled wearily. I'd known the answer to that question ever since fourth year; it had been a very awkward dream.

"Oh thank God." She sighed slouching back into her small seat. My friend had sworn to never marry. She had seen what it had done to her aunt. But I only told her what she wanted to hear. In some years she was fated to meet a sexy photographer, lucky her.

"Come on, lets get to the airport-"

"You want to get rid of me!" she yelled accusingly. I sighed grabbing her accusing hand and stood pulling her much taller frame with me.

"I'd love it if you never had to leave." I assured her patting the hand I held. "But you know how early you have to be to airports these days." I told her. Besides, if we left soon we could skip out on our bill. I hadn't seen the waiter in over half an hour.

"Yeah," she sighed. "I just don't want to go." She complained hugging me to her tightly. "Or I want to take you with me." She said, "I don't want you to stay if what's been said is true. It's too horrible." She was crying again. She was talking about the news surfacing all over. 'The Dark Lord was back' the papers had said.

"Come on Charlie, you're bringing unwanted attention to yourself." I told her managing to dump some muggle money on the table as we left. Stupid waiter, showing up. The sun was on its way out, but the sky was still bright and the light managed a faded glow. Apartment windows blindingly gleamed orange as Charlie hailed a cab. I sadly smiled as a cab quickly skid to the curb. You were always guaranteed a cab almost instantly whenever you go out with Charlie. She was so obviously beautiful, you could even tell at a great distance.

"I.A. terminals." Charlie said forlornly to the cab driver as I scooted in next to her.

To be honest, I was next to ecstatic that Charlie was leaving. She was in so much danger here in Europe I could have choked. She had no idea how true those papers had been. And since she was my only friend, I was always lying to her constantly. I wasn't a modest secretary at the _Daily Prophet_, but that's what I had to tell Charlie. I didn't fail my secondary school I went to during our last year at Hogwarts –I'd skipped some grades- but that's what I had to tell Charlie. I just assumed that I would feel better once the one person I was always lying to would be gone, so far away I didn't have to lie anymore. It hurt to tell her I was going to the office when I was really off trekking through dense forests tracking down murderers. It was brutal telling her excuses for my injuries.

I sighed leaning my head against the recently cleaned window, starring off into the muggle world. That's what I did, I was specially trained to track and contain Death Eaters. I was primed and prepped ever since I took my first step into Hogwarts. It was upsetting to arrest your fifth year potions partner, or severely wound your assigned study buddy for the ancient runes N.E.W.T's. And the worst, the only person I could talk to about anything and everything, I couldn't. I was ordered to keep her in the dark, and I understood. I was all for keeping Charlie out of unnecessary danger, especially if it became my fault if she'd end up hurt.

It was better if Charlie was alive and thriving hundreds of miles away from me, then lying on her death bed because someone had seen us have lunch together. I shuddered slouching in my seat.

"Anna?" Charlie softly freed me from my revering. "You know you're my best friend." She stated, she didn't need me to answer. "I understand that you do it to keep me safe, but is it too much to expect an owl or two?" she was going to cry again, I knew she was because my eyes were already stinging with her words; we had a weird unexplainable link when it came to our feelings. It sounded so girly, but there was always a next to none chance we were feeling the same together.

I couldn't look at her yet. Somehow I'd always known she knew about my secret life, maybe it was a feeling, or I really had _known_-known deep down, past my conscience. It hurt to know that she knew I had been lying to her.

"Oh Charlie." I sighed ignoring my tears. "Only two guys know about me and they've been cursed into silence until it's pretty much public knowledge, and that's never going to happen." I was ranting. "I hate this, it's like I never had a chance to choose something I'd wanted. I was guided into what _they_ wanted." Charlie was listening so intently, I knew she'd already made sure the cabby wasn't listening. "I know so many secrets its ridiculous. I have no one to tell them to. All I can look forward to is some sign! I don't even know what it is, but I'll supposedly just _know. _And I'm being controlled by a dead man!" I said angrily. "Dead, Charlie. _He's dead!_ But I'm still stuck doing what he says!" I hit my knee and looked out the window again. Time past silently. It felt good to get it out.

"You know what?" she said, the cab was pulling up to the terminals. "You do what you have to, and I'll always be an owl away." She promised. We shared a moment as the cabby waited for his money. That's why she's my best friend. We skipped out on paying him.

Then I went and did something stupid in the terminals, I saved a Death Eaters life. But the most upsetting thing was I had no clue anything was going down until seconds before it did. The bad guys were becoming unpredictable, inconsistent. Even if their plans before had seemed random or spontaneous, I had known the rhythm. I knew what would happen, I could plan ahead.

If I'd known this would happen, I would have convinced Charlie to take a damn boat.

_Review please!_

_-BS_


	2. Smack Down!

_Thanks for the reviews! ...enjoy!_

_---_

Oh, I hated Apparating.

The bathroom door wasn't there anymore; it was a very tragic realization on my part. Draco was free to body slam me into Charlie, professional wrestlers would have been proud. His weight, combined with my own, crushed Charlie to a fine dust on my apartment living room floor. She didn't have much air to complain. In the middle of a crisis, I guess Charlie could only think of my living room. With some grunts we fell in a tangled mass to the floor, my face barley missing the edge of my coffee table. He fell on top of me, pushing my back into Charlie's ribs, his chin painfully hitting the top of my shoulder and probably choking himself as his neck slammed into my collar bone. I had been successfully sandwiched. They say that there's a first time for everything, but I would have gone very willingly without this experience.

I resisted the urge to puke as my arm wrapped with Draco's jerked forcefully into my gut. The wind had been knocked out of me, I was dizzy from Apparating, and Draco's body was crushing me. Tall people were so annoying, weighing a few thousand tons and such. I wondered if he knew he weighed a small elephant.

Oh poor Charlie! I realized suddenly. Thankfully my ill feelings and extremely throbbing body were ignored as the prospect of suffocating Charlie came to mind. I groaned with the effort of pushing Draco to the side. I ended up rolling with him, our limbs uncomfortably tangled as we were. Both of us tumbled to the side off of Charlie, my free hand unnoticeably searching all of his pockets (the natural pickpocket I was) in an urgent rush. He regained his wits fast as our tumble ended with me on top of him and his wand half way down the hall that led to my bedroom. I tried desperately to pull my arm free, to get some distance between us. But he was holding me too tight in the odd tangled grip he had formed; his other arm had already grasped my previously free one and my face had been pulled close to his, we glared at each other. I knew he was a Death Eater, but what did he know about me? What reason did he have to follow us? Why was he struggling with me now? I was too indignant to think as properly as I should have. But I was still holding back, unsure of what he knew.

Charlie moaned on the ground forcing herself to get up. Oh good, she hadn't been crushed to death. But she didn't move much, a small elephant and young woman falling on you would do that.

With a jerk I pulled back enough for his grip to slip to my wrist; I wiggled in his hold more, his upper body rising off the floor as he tried to pull me tighter. He grunted as I accomplished a quick twist of my limbs, his hand was forced back painfully. Without really thinking, I slammed my free elbow straight into his face. That would bruise horribly, it made me feel better. He yelled as I hit him again. It was his fault after all; I believe I had every right to fight his awkward hold.

One arm free, my hand quickly flew to my wand. He wasn't having it. Bastard.

Angry, he grabbed my arm again before I could get into my coat's pocket. He easily threw me off balance as he jerked my arm back to the floor, causing me to fall off him with a sudden rush. He turned with me and ended up on top of me only to receive a rather large over packed purse to the face. Thank God for Charlie. She was up and functioning again.

Pulling my upper body up before he could react, I pushed with everything I could manage and he fell off me surprised with the sudden double attack. Charlie was really getting into it, relentless with her bag to his face. My legs were unfortunately still stuck underneath him. But my arms were free.

"Damnit, woman!" he yelled at Charlie. I grinned through my efforts to get myself away from him; she was giving him a hell of a time.

Charlie had delivered a surprisingly spirited hit and caused him to start falling back, but before he could hit the floor I grabbed his shoulders seeing the dashing opportunity. He had let my hands go to protect his face long ago. I pushed ruthlessly and forced him face first into my carpet. His nose met my new throw rug with a thump. It was a lovely rug; I discovered it at a flea market last weekend when I was shopping with Charlie. A real steal.

With his face informally introduced to my carpet I was finally able to drag my legs free from under his crumpled form and quickly jumped him dropping one knee into the center of his back (he grunted in surprise). I forced his arms back and twisted them. I had the unfortunate privilege of experiencing the exact hold I had forced his arms into. I couldn't look back at the incident very fondly; it had made me feel pathetically helpless. The hold made every movement pull painfully on your shoulders forcing you to remain still. Of course Draco seemed to be a mutant Death Eater immune to the Judo hold. He thrashed and struggled most intensely, I imagined I had a mild thought of what it felt like to ride an enraged bull. I could only guess how humiliating it was to be constrained by a very small young woman. But I was trained to do this, and to his efforts, I hadn't had to struggle with anyone this much in ages.

"Cees give me your belt," I said and Draco went suspiciously still. I had used Charlie's most hated nickname and so she mildly glared at me, making my neck prickle. I was breathless and irritated, I couldn't care any less. My voice had become airy and rushed; I felt even more winded then when I had taken two elbows to the gut not moments ago. I heard her quickly unbuckle the more decorative belt around her hips, her breath just as short as my own. The buckle hit Draco's back a bit harshly and he grunted again, Charlie didn't care, I opened my mouth and Charlie obliged by placed the other end in my mouth.

I looked crossly down at Draco. I knew he couldn't see my face, but I had been romped and crushed more then any girl could handle in a single day. He had been thrashing harshly trying to free himself, but stopped as if he'd been knocked unconscious as soon as my words left my mouth. But he was still awake…Oh no, my accent. I cursed around the belt angrily, the stupid accent won again. He remembered me, freaking joy!

Using his momentary stillness, I quickly tied his hands together with the flashy belt. And why wasn't the angle I was holding his arms hurting? I'd been taught the hold because the strain on his arms was supposed to make him stop resisting in order not to injure himself further. The hold hadn't stopped Draco's onslaught of struggles in the least. Perhaps he really was a mutant Death Eater, a new thing the Dark Lord was testing out. I looked at my window suspiciously expecting a masked Death Eater in a white lab coat taking notes.

He hadn't moved even a little once I spoke. Was he tired? His breath was coming out in deep gasps against my lovely rug, his hair a tangled mess. He still didn't move as I pointed my wand at the rather shinny belt, enabling it to cancel out his Apparating abilities. I sighed as I fell back to my floor, staring at the ceiling. Gosh was I tired.

That morning I never thought I'd have a wrestling match with Draco Malfoy on my living room floor. And of course I hardly felt the victor; I was ready to sleep four years away. I heard him take a deep breath, the sound a bit muffled against the rug.

"Anna," he said simply. No distaste, no dry humor, nothing Slytherin about it. I was mildly disappointed. He had just said my name as if it came to mind that moment. Stupid accent. "Annabelle Muntrealas." A very stupid accent it was.

"What do you want?" I asked ignoring my name from his mouth. Maybe he'll think he'd been mistaken if I said my name wasn't Anna. "Why did you follow us? Why are you here?" I asked still blankly starring at my ceiling. An ugly crack was forming in the corner above my telly. I couldn't see Draco being fooled as easily as denying my name from his mouth, I threw the thought away. And man was I wiped; I hadn't had to struggle with someone like that since I first started field work my second year. It was the first time I'd gotten in trouble too because I wasn't allowed off campus yet and Mister Filch just happened to be investigating a hunch when I returned. Something about Weasly's.

"You were in Ravenclaw. We had Herbology together. You were my partner sixth year." Draco said. He ignored my questions. I past it as justifiable as I had ignored him first. "You always left forty minutes before class ended to go to another lesson." I heard him move, his clothes rubbing against the lovely rug. I rolled my head to the side and watched him pull himself to sit against the wall. A bruise was already forming on his right cheek bone. His grey eyes glanced to Charlie and I rolled my head to the other side refusing to get up, he wore me out, I didn't have to move if I didn't want to. My adrenalin rush was most definitely spent.

Charlie was glaring at him. It was understandable. She understood awhile back that people weren't supposed to notice me. It became her biggest excuse to dress as flashy as she wanted when we went out together; it made sure people wouldn't even be tempted to look at the girl with the beautiful Amazon. The ridiculous belt restraining Draco happened to be one of the many byproducts. I chuckled and she looked at me as if I'd joined the circus.

I forced my head to turn to Draco again with a lingering smile. Just looking at him I could tell that he had something to say, but not in front of Charlie. I sighed. His eyes had taken on a certain shine I found immensely entrancing. Unfortunately, this made me extremely curious, another fault of mine sitting up there with my accent. If I wanted to know what he had to say, I was going to have to get up to make sure Charlie thought I was up to handling him myself if anything else happened.

With a deep breath I rolled up to my feet and buried any exhaustion I felt at the moment behind another smile. Sadly, drained as I was, I couldn't come up with the best ideas for complicated things like creating the right impression on the person that knew you best. Charlie was rightfully suspicious; I hadn't planned that too well. Smiling hadn't been the best tactic to use. It was the best I could do on short notice. _Though I had gotten up quickly_, that had to count for something.

"Cees-" I started slowly. I tried to get in as much persuasive tones as I could into her--most hated--nickname. In response, her lip stuck out in a sign of stubbornness and she crossed her arms furthering the look. I'd insulted her, great.

"Whatever he has to say, he can say it in front of me." Okay, so Charlie wasn't the good-grades-in-school type of person, but she wasn't stupid. She had the observation skills of a freaking Chief Auror. I glared at her, ceasing my plan to persuade her to leave the room calmly and in a civilized manor. I was going to have to beg and plead with her. I gave her The Eyes. Her pout deflated. _Excellent._

"You have to plan another flight and you really shouldn't hear anything that comes form his mouth, he was Slytherin you know." I stated firmly (lame excuse, I know). I back up my unreasonable excise by giving her the most pathetic look I could. Fortunately, Draco couldn't see my face because my eyes were telling Charlie something completely off the wall compared to what I had actually verbally said. In reality I was probably groveling at Charlie's feet, begging her to just leave for a few minutes. I was so tired and exhausted; couldn't she do one little favor for me? I just needed to hear what Draco had to say. Death Eaters had a tendency to spill very useful information in such situations. They try to buy themselves out of their situations or something, letting things slip that they really shouldn't have let slip to someone like me. _And his eyes!_ I had to _know_.

I continued begging with my eyes. I had unwisely entered into an open ended promise to Charlie. If she would just do this for me, I would do anything. I would be banging my head into my wall in a few hours for my stupidity, but I had no idea at the moment. I was too hammered tired to be more thoughtful of my approach to handling my Charlie situation. I'd fallen into The Promise right out the gate; you never go straight to The Promise. I am very incompetent functioning on will alone. It's sad really.

Charlie rose from my small couch with such regality that I almost laughed. I seem to be witless as well. She calmly walked past Draco glaring at him and narrowly missed his legs with her sharply healed shoes. I smiled fondly after her; I couldn't wait to get her out of London. Draco's surprise "attack" only fueled the feeling more. Now if only she mysteriously forgotten my silent promise…

I heard my bedroom door shut and my muggle radio switch on, causing a muffled beat to softly reach the living room. I sighed relieved and collapsed to my knees in front of Draco. He watched me closely. I glared; it was his fault everything ached. He'd put such a strain on me and I hadn't even had a chance to stretch first, it's appalling. Now I was in for a much unsuspected twist from Charlie because of my unwillingness to be more tactful. She could pull anything from my promise. And right when I had to get her to America, too!

"What?" I asked exasperated. It was hard to look neutral with his eyes somehow shinning shine-lessly at me. I tossed my hair out of my eyes, mad at how tired I was. I could really use a nap, or coffee. _Coffee! _I resisted the urge to moan at the thought of coffee.

"Behold," he said blatantly. "Your sign." He didn't look too thrilled. I could easily say the same for myself. Wait, what?

"The hell..." I mumbled diverting my eyes as I thought. It's very hard to think looking him in the face, or more rather in the eyes. "My sign?" Ah, it clicked. "_The _sign?" He nodded. I groaned. Why him? Anyone but him! Oh curse you Dumbledore. I bet he's shooting milk out his nose in his grave. Crazy old man…

_Review please!_

_-BS_


	3. Houdini Rises Again

_Thank you for all of the reviews. I'm glad you're all enjoying this fic : ) Now enjoy this chapter!_

_--_

I decided that along with Draco's mutant-ness provided by the Dark Lord, he had also been set up to deceive me into believing him to be my sign from a dead man. He couldn't _really_, I mean, he's _Draco_. Come on. It would all make sense except the part where Draco found out about my "sign", which as far as I knew only Dumbledore and I were conscious of. Well, I'm the only conscious one now, but still! How else would Draco have found out? Dumbledore hadn't been one to spread secret information, and I couldn't even imagine him folding under any kind of torture. So how did Draco know?

"Oh God, you're serious," I said aloud. He watched me gape; a very Slytherin scowl had set in his handsome features at that point. "I could tell by the overly zealous grin on your face." I supplied sarcastically. Wasn't this great? All the sudden, I newly discovered the fibers in my lovely carpet and decided to watch them to make sure they didn't decide to change color. I would be very upset if they did; I liked their colors fine the way they were. They reminded me of the neighbor's garden at the Cliffside Manor. "No, I'm quite sane thank you," I said evenly. I continued staring at my lovely rug. I couldn't bring myself to see his reaction; I'd answered his rather stupid question before he could ask. Actually, I answered before he'd even decided to ask it aloud. I wasn't in the mood to be hearing things twice. "And you're mother is in the Bahamas, not Morocco." I have no idea why that little fact came to mind, but it seemed to do the trick. My eyebrows furrowed at that moment. Since when had I been able to pull so much information from one person? It'd always been a once in a blue moon kind of thing. An odd dream I was forced to decipher or a tiny flash so I wouldn't step in gum. Since when had I known what someone was going to ask? Or even the answer to something they never were going to ask me. I doubted he would start discussing the disappearance of his mother with me, and yet I had the answer for him.

I forced myself to look up at him. I impishly smiled shrugging my shoulders. That just proves it doesn't it? I thought. By the looks of Draco's almost calm exterior Dumbledore had told him about me. But it was very evident Draco hadn't believed the old man, he was a suspicious mess inside. A little bit more Slytherin quality slipped out and his eyes lost their rather shocked gaze. He covered the feelings under his large bit of pride and stared impassively at me. That was one way to deal with me, but I'd have to say Charlie comes up with the best ways.

"Are you-" I cut myself off gaining a thoughtful gaze. This wasn't really the place to talk about things in detail. It was my apartment and all, but I was never sure how private my apartment was. I looked back up at him and leveled my gaze, daring him to lie to me. If he wasn't my stupid sign, I was going to forget how clumsy I was at the top of the stairwell and push him down all seven flights to the lobby when we left. "Well..." I couldn't quite explain it even to myself, but I knew that he wasn't lying. Dumbledore still had a strong hold over my life even in death; I smiled a bit, that old man. "That would explain this, I suppose." I commented pulling my very dear locket out my left sleeve. I'd stolen it from him during our scuffle.

About six months ago, I had to track Lucius Malfoy down myself and remove something from him the Ministry of Magic should never see. Before I'd kicked him off, he dashed away with my locket, Apparating to God only knows where. By sheer coincidence—absolute coincidence I assure—after I'd passed the object-the-Ministry-should-never-see to the very nice redheaded gentleman I had been acquainted with ever since my mid first year, Lucius Malfoy had been apprehended and shipped off to Azkaban. My locket hadn't been found on him. The very tall dark Auror—my only other acquaintance—had reported straight to me of the loss. I'm guessing Lucius passed the locket to his son. I frowned. That wouldn't really make Draco's case very formable after all. Where had I gotten the bit of reason to say my locket proved his case? How tired was I really? Jeez.

I looked down at my locket ignoring Draco's mild glare, I guess he didn't like people stealing stuff form him. The large heart had been a bit scuffed up over the years, but no new damage. I opened the tiny clasp and sadly smiled, Sally and Elzmira were still inside. However, one of the links of the chain had been broken. It must have happened when Mister Malfoy Senior ripped the thing from my neck. I fingered the stretched loop lightly wondering how much time I would have to ship Charlie off to safety. With Draco in my living room and his news still ringing in my ears, I doubted I had much time left.

"Well!" I said sharply as I rose to my feet. It's amazing what a little shocking news can do for exhaustion. "I have to be out for a few." And I walked down the hall. It wasn't very nice of me, but I wasn't in the nice kind of mood.

"You're not going to untie me?" He asked loudly down the hall after me. "I thought I just said I was your sign!" he added angrily. He had a bit of a temper I guess. Like saying he was my "sign" was really going to gain instant trust from me anyway, Draco had a long way to go to get _there_. I tisk-ed to myself silently before turning to face him.

"Honestly," I said stopping outside my door. The muggle radio was still playing, but I knew Charlie was right on the other side of the door. "I don't really trust you." I opened the door, pretending not to notice Charlie's flushed face. "We don't have much time Cees." I told her leaning in my door jam and crossing my arms. "Are you ready?"

"Now?" she asked sadly. "That's really him?" she added nodding her head toward the living room. "You're sure?" I smiled. She worried about me too much, but I guess I do my own share of worrying over her. But I was unhappy that she had overheard. I really hadn't wanted her to know anything about my other life. However much it hurt to lie to her, I never planned on telling her the truth either.

"No doubt." I lied. This was really starting to hurt all over again. Here I was lying, just for old time's sake I guess.

"Where to?" she sighed unhappy. She pulled her long frame up off my bed and scooped up her bag. "And what about…him?" she asked peering out the hall. I leaned back and looked down the hall with her. Draco stared back with the up most Slytherin worthy glare; I realized then why he had been referred to as the Prince of Slytherin. "It suits him." Charlie said tilting her head.

"The belts a little much though." I pushed off the wall and walked back up the hall to the living room. Draco continued to glare.

"You're going to leave him like that?" Charlie asked raising an eyebrow. I paused, my back turned from her. I'd just told her I was positive he was my sign Dumbledore had set up, and now how was I going to get around the part where I can leave him tied up. Tying people up was very high on the list of things to do to people you don't trust.

"I can get you on a boat in twenty minutes." I said instead. I wasn't going to lie _again_, so I would just avoid answering. When I turned around, Charlie had figured it out anyway. "Oh come on!" I said exasperated. Draco was so confused he forgot to keep his scowl in full swing. Me and Charlie were very confusing people, it was understandable.

"I still have your promise?" she asked. I could barely stand her look; it was like she thought she was my mother. I don't even know who my mother is, jeez.

"Of course." I replied shocked. I'd made the stupid thing; I was going to keep it. "Just don't put it into action for a while, can you?" I pouted and she folded. Ah the powers of the pout, no spell could match the affectivity of the pout. I caught Draco's smirk, he was just jealous. He'd never master the pout as I had.

"Where, when, how long?" she asked. Charlie didn't like this, but she knew she had no real choice. I realized how spoiled I'd been to have such an understanding best friend. I got a sudden falling sensation; the wave that washed over me that meant if I didn't try really hard, I was going to start crying again. When did I loose so much control and fall into these moods so quickly. Had I become bipolar midway through my death match with Draco? I glanced at him suspiciously; maybe it was a side effect from whatever the Dark Lord had done to him.

--

So it's not very likely someone like me would have many connections, especially with a transporting company. But look at me, getting Charlie on a boat in less than half an hour.

Record breaking handkerchief exchanges underwent in the small bit of time I had before Charlie had to board. My soon to be super model best friend hopped a ship to New York with pink puffy cheeks and red eyes. I was gone and in a taxi on my way home before I even had time to breathe. I didn't even want to think about what Draco could have done while I was gone, and in my house! With my _stuff_.

The cabby yelled as I skipped out on paying him. The cold London street air rushed to meet my face in a drably London way. I was jumping stairs three at a time, ripping doors open and jamming my finger into the elevator buttons in a mad rush. Scandalous stare were wildly thrown my way as I tore down the hall my apartment was situated. The flashing gold numbers on the apartment doors winked at me, and couples carrying in their groceries flattened to the walls avoiding my sprint. Keys were dropped, surprised elderly "_woo's"_ echoed, and children laughed. I was being ridiculous, he couldn't-

"_Houdini!"_ I accused. He slowly smirked a wide almost smile behind his cup of steaming tea. _My cup! My tea!_

I hunched over, grabbing my knees and breathed deeply while glaring at him through my frumpy hair. My door hit the wall inside and starting weakly swinging back toward me. I straightened and closed the door, ignoring his continued grin and deliberately looked the other way. Instead, I collapsed face first into my couch. I had never known the word exhaustion until now. And only by God was Draco going to interrupt my banishment of it. And so, it is evident God hates me.

_Review please!_

_-BS_


	4. Funny Tea

_Barely anyone reviewed, but I'm still posting despite that._

--

"I made you a cup too," he said still in _my_ kitchen. I could just picture him leaning casually against my counter still smirking my way in that egotistic Slytherin way I remembered from my school days. In my own intelligent come back, I mumbled an angry incoherent thought hoping he would spontaneously explode. And with _that_ thought I sat up smiling brightly, it's amazing how well I can push away exhaustion when something so fantastically ironic comes to mind. My brilliant smile that would make a dentist proud made Draco uneasy. He stopped smiling and put his cup down in suspicion. I continued to smile knowing he'd had at least a sip of my tea.

I'll admit I'm the grandmother of paranoid, but at this point my paranoid behavior had brought Draco to me on a lovely crystal platter edged in gold flakes and engraved to the Queen of England. I was very smug at the moment, and my smugness rightfully made Draco uneasy. The tea that I drink, I kept in the fridge (behind lots of other stuff, but that was beside the point). The tea that Draco had made came from the pantry where everyone else kept their tea. The tea I kept in the pantry was a funny gift from Dumbledore a few years back. He'd said that it was a "great party starter that tea was". To put it simply, the tea Draco had brewed in his moment of triumph had been Dumbledore's funny tea, which happened to have been soaked in truth serum before being dried and packaged. Oh did I have some questions for Draco.

"What do you think of my rug?" I asked waving a hand back at my great trophy of cheapness. Okay, so asking his opinion of my décor wasn't quiet what anyone else would do in my situation, but I was curious, and I liked my rug damnit!

His face was still suspicious and his eyes narrowed as his jaw clenched ready for whatever may come his way from me. But as soon as I'd finished my question, his face broke and he answered my question obviously against his will. My grin illegally immigrated across the crazy border, but that quickly stopped as I registered what he said.

"It's a tacky rip-off of an Indonesian floor mat from Surabaya; it was probably made in a Chinese sweatshop on a farm." I glared and he looked unhappy with his loss of control over his mouth. So his very displeasing summary of my rug convinced me to take advantage of his state.

"You suck." He smirked despite his compromising situation.

"What did you do to me?" he demanded loosing his smirk a bit too quickly for my liking, maybe he had violent mood swings. Instead of answering him, I slipped off my couch and planted myself in the chair pushed against the opposite side of the counter from Draco.

"How did you get out of the belt?" I asked innocently perching my elbows on my counter so he would know where my hands were. I didn't want to alarm him; he was loose in my apartment after all.

"This shoulder's double jointed." He answered right after I'd asked and pointed to his left shoulder. Finally he looked down at the cup still lightly steaming on the counter in front of him. I nodded to myself thoughtfully, that would also explain the judo hold not tearing his ligaments to pieces. "Did you spike my tea?" he asked. I smiled funnily probably making him paranoid.

"Oddly enough, you did it to yourself." I told him crossing my arms over the counter and looking up at him. He stood baffled; of course it was a Slytherin baffled face so he just looked unhappily angry. "That was a gag gift from a funny old man a long time ago. You've just poisoned yourself with truth serum." I was a bit too happy to break him the news. "How long have you known about me and my peculiar job?" I snuck in.

"Since Dumbledore told me." I frowned. Since I'd told him what he'd taken he knew how to resist the brute of the side effects. He wasn't spurting details anymore, just direct answers.

"Did you work for Dumbledore?" I asked him before he could get out of hearing range.

"Yes!" he yelled with some difficulty as he tried to get out of my kitchen and to my front door. I wasn't going to mess around with him anymore.

"Don't make me tackle you." I said jumping out of my chair to cover the door before he could reach it. I slipped between him and the door grabbing the molding on either side and starring up at him determined. He narrowed his eyes at me as he covered his mouth with both hands unwilling to say anymore to me. "Do you still work for his organization?" I asked calmly trying to get to the bottom of all this new information coming to me. I'd always been on a need-to know-basis, never the one to interrogate someone. This was new for me, and I doubted this was supposed to be happening in my apartment with him loose to try and escape. A muffled yes managed through his white knuckles. And then suddenly he was down my hall and looking for a different way out. There happened to be a fire escape out my bedroom window. I would have to say that working for the Order makes Draco not a Death Eater. But what in hell could explain his behavior of running rampant around my apartment?

He'd left me no choice and our dispute took to wrestling again, but as I said, I wasn't going to mess around with him anymore. Plus Charlie was gone and I didn't have to hold back so not to scare her to death. In a flash I was straddling Draco at the base of my bed feet away from my window, my legs were crossed over his not allowing him to move and his hands were firmly held down using my weight against his strength. He glared probably having no idea how our position came about. I blew my black brown bangs out of my eyes and glared right back.

"You're seriously the sign Dumbledore promised me all those years ago?" I asked, he curtly nodded very unhappy. "I don't have to be a secret to the Order anymore?" I asked him leaning over his face. My hair had come lose somewhere along the days hectic hours and it fell over my shoulder resting next to his head. The white blond and black brown contrasted so much it was almost lovely to look at. I blinked trying to focus on the matter at hand again.

"With my arrival, your previous contract with Dumbledore has been completed, and your new one has been activated, congratulations," he replied dryly. The serum was wearing off; his added sarcasm a definite clue to that. But what he'd said was true.

I sat back releasing his hands and ignoring his grunt as I sat back on his hips. My eyes had glazed over in my wondering and Draco sat up on his elbows watching me closely. My eyes suddenly focused and I looked Draco in the eye blankly.

"That would also mean you're my partner, huh?" I asked. He smirked. This was so going to be hell. "But how come you're known as a Death Eater around the circuit?" I asked curious. Whatever he had to say to answer me would be of his own free will, the serum had worn off and Draco was in full control over what he wanted to say or what he wished to keep to himself.

"Before today, I was in line to become one. I was supposed to kill your friend Charlie at the airport," I was brain dead at this point, "but then I recognized you from the photo Dumbledore gave me and I froze. I wasn't really going to kill her, the Order had it planned that the ceiling would collapse and they would rush her away into protection." I blinked disbelievingly; didn't my only contacts work for the Order? Wouldn't they know who my only friend was?

"That's why the beam falling almost killed you," I said. He nodded still sitting on his elbows at the bottom of my bed as the Tuesday sun set outside my window. What a weird predicament we'd found ourselves in.

"Seeing you interfered with my plans and I was careless." Slytherin defenses were surfacing. "I failed and then an Order member was recognized by a Death Eater, I'm to be killed on sight by the Death Eaters." And probably a lecture by the Order once he returned. So because he saw me, he almost got crushed by thousands of pounds of airport ceiling.

"Oh." I really had a way with words. It was then I decided straddling a very pretty Slytherin boy was overrated and I untangled my legs releasing his and climbed off him extending my hand to him. "Why the hell would anyone want to kill Charlie!" I suddenly yelled in distress. My extended hand flew to my hair and I fingered it into a ponytail wondering how safe she really was on the boat I'd caught for her. Draco had ignored my hand anyway and sat at the edge of my bed watching me pace bordering a panic attack. Holding my hair, I realized I didn't have a hair tie and just dropped my hair as a bundle of confusion and distress battled it out in my chest.

"Her father owns half the wizarding candy industry," he said. I flew around glaring, I already knew that. His eyes widened at the amount of anger I'd pinned him with. "He was a very good friend of Dumbledore's and funds most of the Orders activity."

"Shit!" I exclaimed unhappily, I caught Draco's smirk as my odd accent made the word sound very vampire. I glared in response. How the hell was I supposed to catch a boat already far into the Atlantic by now? Was there still a count out on her head?

"Aurors patrol every plane and ship in and out of Britain," Draco said. I remembered reading that in the paper. Hopefully there were ten Aurors on Charlie's boat because I wasn't able to do a thing to help her at this point. "Do you have normal tea?"

I laughed near tears and forced myself to my feet. "Yeah, surprisingly I do."

_Please review this time. _

_-BS_


	5. Rolling Carpets and Broken Bums

_Thanks for the very few reviews. enjoy..._

_--_

It was very unfortunate that I would never even reach my kitchen. It was also unfortunate that I wouldn't have a kitchen anymore. It seemed that Draco had a tracking devise unknowingly surgically inserted into his brain or something. How the hell did Death Eaters find him in my apartment? I'd personally applied more than half of the misdirection spells covering the damn place.

And so it was, masked idiots of the Dark Lord blew up my kitchen and all of my funny tea. I was proud of my correct assumption that Draco was a fleer and not a fighter, though at that moment I found I was agreeing with him. I was tired of all this spontaneous attacking crap; I missed the routine of careful planning and hours of profiling. This make-something-up-on-the-spot stuff was killing me.

Before I knew it, I was starring a few wands right in the face with not a clue as how to find the whereabouts of mine. It would have been nice to at least have a weapon of my own to face them off with. Hell, I didn't even have a witty remark to be written as my last words. Thankfully Draco was capable of thought and tackled me to the floor—the theme of our day apparently. And we were once again caught in a very compromising position, but this time with quite the few spectators. As an amused chuckle sounded from one of the indistinguishable Death Eaters I glared at the carpet. It was bad enough to have to go through all of this rolling on the carpets, we didn't need witnesses.

Then with an uncomfortable tug of the abdomen, my face was no longer greeting my plain beige carpet, but rather, a stretch of dirty bricks with moss and other unmentionable diseases. As that waft of wet rocks and dirt greeted my nose the pain of Draco weighing down on me suddenly started to become suffocating.

I couldn't muster the energy to save my life, but when it came to kissing filthy red rocks I could push a man off my back and jump to my feet scrubbing my face with the sleeve of my shirt in seconds. And then mind you I hate Apparating and had been infected with the worst stomach twists of my life. Draco groaned self pityingly and I spared him a glance as I continued to scrub my cheek pink. He looked the equivalent of my previous exhausted state. Of course it was only a guess as, where we were, the light wasn't too prominent over the dark.

Done with my sparing of glances, I looked around the place Draco had Apparated us to. I almost instantly recognized a specific turn in a path of a London park as my eyes adjusted to the darkness. We were lucky to have not been seen; I knew this path to be a favorite among the London scenic walkers. It's mind numbing how many places I can recognize, but it also came in handy with my line of work. I stared up at the oak tree covering our stretch of park path and couldn't find even one star through the thick leaves and branches; the tree was so old and had grown so dense it didn't even allow the sodium park lights to reach us. Perhaps Draco had known what he was doing when he brought us here. A display of magic like Apparating (accompanied by the hardly inconspicuous bang of displaced air) was a very noticeable thing to witness. However, in this dark, even if a muggle had heard the noise, they wouldn't be able to put our appearance and the noise together.

Draco finally decided to come to his feet with me. A good choice I'd say.

"They might be behind us," Draco said and I could hear the tiredness in his voice. Maybe I had worn him down more then I thought with our struggles. "Are we cool right now?" He asked covering an unhappy sigh. The American slur almost made me laugh. "No more rolling on the carpets?" He continued raising an invisible eyebrow in the dark.

"Nah, not now," I assured him. I stepped back from the tree and searched out the lights in the park, wondering what I would be able to see in the dark. Night had fallen on us faster then I'd thought and it was nearly impossible to see without the sparse illumination of the light posts. "And they wont be following," I added. I didn't know if he could see, but I'd waved his wand back and forth in a smug triumph. When Draco had pulled me to the floor under him, I'd landed with the life saving little wand centimeters from my nose. I presumed I'd been unnoticed as I cast the silent interference charm. Pretty lucky that I'd thrown his wand down the hall earlier. They wouldn't be trailing us for at least ten minutes—I hoped. That had been all my state would allow at the time. "But we'll need to move right about now." I insisted as I turned my back to him. I couldn't make any guarantees, but I had the urging feeling to move very far away from that spot. And with Draco nearby I wasn't going to ignore any kind of feeling I had. He was like my amplifier.

With the quietest argument of my life, Draco grabbed my hand and we'd become a young couple lost in the park. I was not happy. The crazy teenage muggles roaming the dark park were none the wiser though, and had been treated with a genuine Slytherin glare in response to inquisitions (—what was that noise man? —). Poor Draco had, in return, been assaulted by gothic girls swooning. That had made me feel a little better.

Both Draco and I were more then ready to sleep for an eternity. I knew because he had tiredly agreed with me. Before long, Draco's show of holding hands had become a life line between us. A single stumble would fall us to the ground, and I doubted that either of us would have the will to get back up. Without motivation of course. But after a quick interference of a flash in my mind, I knew we'd have some motivation soon.

I was convinced to change our direction unexpectedly and Draco nearly pulled me down with him. The flash had been brief, but had gotten the point across very clearly. There was more then gothic muggles with us in the park. I had no desire to meet up with them.

By some stretch, I managed to keep us both up and we stood staring at each other (and slightly glaring—we weren't getting along too nicely quite yet). I made it clear it wasn't a time to make noise and he obviously wanted to know why. New "partners" (whatever Dumbledore had meant by that) or not, he was still a Malfoy and I could clearly see it in his eyes. He wasn't happy with me giving an order (even if it wasn't, it had only been a friendly suggestion to keep us both alive.)

I closed my own eyes and took a deep breath. I was not tired, I was not weak. I had a responsibility to live and see the Order to tell them all that I knew; I had a liability to the deceased Dumbledore to not waste the resources he'd spent on me. I opened my eyes and saw my change in Draco's, I smirked with my triumphant.

"They managed to still track your Apperation trail," I explained quietly. "They'll be waiting at the gates and more are roaming in the park looking for us." His skeptical expression convinced me Dumbledore had tried to explain to Draco the touchy subject of myself, but that he had clearly not believed him. Even if I didn't always want to acknowledge my gift, it had saved me lots of trouble in the past. I would have hated to find out about the gates without my weird gift; that rendezvous would have wasted even more energy. Dumbledore had said I had the Sight once. I'd scoffed. Perhaps I'd been too hasty to lay judgment back then.

"As soon as we're out of here, I can get us to the Order," Draco told me, speaking even quieter then I had. He wasn't skeptical enough to deny what I'd said or question how I'd known. A far off park light flickered and I watched it mirror in Draco's eyes. I wondered who'd gotten screwed with our partnership, I was the one who needed Draco—so he was the one who probably got screwed. I watched him challenge his own tiredness and attributed it to Malfoy stubbornness. It was almost uncomfortable how much I know about the Malfoy family. But next to nothing about Draco himself, I realized.

"A tree near the wall," I clipped shortly, pushing him off the trail with a soft shove and into the suburban brush of the city park. As quiet as two can be in the dark with Death Eaters on the prowl and Muggle teens about looking for trouble, we skulked through the shadows of trees, looking for the stone wall out of this place. My shoulders hurt with tension and I could practically feel Draco's wave off him next to me. A rustle from the wind made us jump, and a far off voice froze us in our tracks. But the first cry of a curse got us running like rabbits. Even if the curse hadn't been aimed at us, we were to the tall stone wall in record time (especially since we couldn't see).

It had been faint, but around the park the teenagers trapped in the park with us were being cursed with obvious Unforgivables. I frowned, wishing I had more energy; perhaps then we could have saved some of the kids their trouble. But when it came to my turn to pull Draco along, I did it with my mind set on a big old maple with gnarly branches and thick protruding roots. I was living to see tomorrow. Charlie needed to be tracked, and I needed a status report on her health. The thoughts of Charlie brought on a new rush of adrenaline I was more then thankful for.

Draco was a better tree climber then I had given him credit for. But then he _was_ a fleer as I had thought before. Climbing trees seemed the best thing to do to get away from people.

The tree seemed to be old, but its braches were still unfortunately frail. Two had snapped under Draco and I was forced to drag him to another. Then two Death Eaters just had to become wise to our plan, drawn by the noise I'd guess. I hadn't had time—or the energy— to turn and fight them. Instead, I chanced the old limbs and leapt over the tall park wall hoping a bail of pillows had been parked below. My bum met cement. As did Draco's. Well, damn.

We should have been given the persistent award of the year for this; we were up and sprinting before the full sting of my bum had come to me. We ran into the busy traffic of London and instantly became another piece in the crowd. Draco snatched my arm from behind me and pulled both of us to a stop just inside an ally off the crowded sidewalk. I heaved, folding to my knees, thankfully breathing deeply. And it was at that time that I did not wonder about our lucky escape, nor the absolute strangeness of my entire day, but wondered if it was possible to break your bum. I was in pain for god's sake!

I looked up, pushed the limp waves of my hair out of my face, and grinned childishly at Draco despite it all. He honored me with a triumphant smirk through his tired breaths and wincing face. I grinned wider. He felt exactly the same. I admired his ability to hide the pain.

"Not too happy with the choice of your partner huh?" I asked. I was proud of the even voice I'd used. He straightened his collared shirt and frowned at his dirty pants—he was gathering time to catch his breath and drown the exhaustion. His hair was a complete mess atop it, but I wasn't too willing to tell him. He might have bitten my head off with the lack of dignity of everything.

"I only hope everyday is not like this with you," he said honestly. I pushed off my knees and stood straight up, though my bum screamed in disproval. I disproved of it too, but an ally wasn't the best place to fall into a coma.

"I want a bed," I told him firmly, and that was the first time I heard Draco Malfoy laugh.

--

_Please do review. I'm very unhappy with the lack there of._

_-BS_


	6. Poor Misguided Miscreants

_:) all of your lovely reviews made me happy. Thank you very very much. Now enjoy the hell out of this chapter..._

--

I was probably correct in the assumption that the many loose jaws were attributed to the fact that Draco (a Malfoy) was looking pretty cozy with a small very rumpled girl at the front door. And the many faces blocking our entrance into the secret Order hideout conveniently didn't see the haggard, utterly pissed-off, tired looks on our faces. If we weren't so "cozy" there'd be no standing at that moment. We both found it very hard not to glare.

I'd had a long day; all that was left of me was anger, sarcasm, and extreme indignity. I scanned the crowd of useless faces trying to find a spec of humanity left in myself to use to get help. I almost collapsed in bliss as I found a familiar face. Thank the Lord! Our eyes met and he immediately came pushing past the collection of people. With a smile he took over the task of holding me up and mumbled a kind word of greeting and nearly carried me inside only giving the illusion of me actually walking. I brushed past some of the people, unhappily realizing that most were around the same age as me. The man carrying me was of the very few older much more experienced people. I was so tired I couldn't focus on a single face. I marveled that I'd been able to locate the nice Auror at all.

"Draco?" I asked turning back and making the very large Auror stop with me. With my beat tired voice, people seemed to snap to and join the living. Draco's face was pale, dusted with the dirt of our adventurous day and scratched from the tree climbing portion. He glared at the people and his knuckles turned white with the effort to hold himself up against the door frame. "Someone help him." I snapped as the anger and indignity seeped through. In reaction, a scrawny young man with black hair jumped forward to get Draco before I fainted in the huge dark Auror's arms.

--

I woke up sneezing.

And then I groaned self pityingly as the full result of my leap from death came almost happily to kill me. I fell back into the pillow behind me and opened my wet eyes. Wherever I had ended up was completely shrouded in the dark of a new night. And then my eyes watered more from the bout of dust that leapt to the air with my fall back into the lumpy bed. I coughed, noticed my parched throat, and almost groaned again. Why did I have to feel so terrible? To be mortal was a horrible thing.

"Do shut up Annabelle." I heard Draco say dryly from the opposite side of the room. He sounded just as miserable as I felt.

"I almost wish we'd faced the Death Eaters then hop that fence," I said to him instead. I heard him snort in a self important way and knew he agreed with me. I sneezed again. "Why's it so dusty?" I tried not to whine and was happy to barely hear it in my voice. There was a pause where Draco probably wondered if it was wise to engage in conversation with me. I might never leave him alone if he did! Ha, right. My tailbone was throbbing and my thoughts abruptly stopped as I waited for the throb to mellow. No use.

"I don't use my room here very often; I didn't like to stay here," He finally said. He sounded more reluctant to speak then I would have thought. But I'd found out that this was his room. Did he have it to himself? Had I stolen someone else's bed? "There's no use in dusting an uninhabited room." He had his own room, I concluded. "Go to sleep," he said after a moments pause. I fully agreed there and chanced to turn to my side (wincing all the way) as I mumbled a "night" to him.

--

The next time I awoke I was happily numb. Light had spattered across the walls through a raggedy window with torn curtains that were doing their best to hold back the sun. I sat up suddenly as the bleary thing hovering over me turned out to be a person. As I blinked widely and scooted away from the mystery person my vision grudgingly returned.

"Madam Pomfrey?" I marveled. She smiled kindly and I had a sudden bout of reminiscing to my school days in the starchy beds. "Huh?" I summarized wonderfully, leaning forward to make sure it was in fact her. There was no doubt left.

"Please, call me Poppy dear," she said as she sat back into a chair that had been pulled up next to my bed. I knew it'd been pulled because the tracks through the dust were very visible in the golden light of morning. I looked around noticing someone missing.

"Where's Draco?" I asked meeting eyes with her. She grew reluctant to answer, I saw it form as she weighed her options to answer me or not. It was easy for me to conclude that Draco hadn't said anything about me. Even Madam Pomfrey was suspicious of me; no matter how well she could hide behind her kind face, I could see it. I decided I should change tactic. "And that nice Auror?" I acted oblivious to the long pause she hadn't filled with an answer with. It was unfortunate I didn't know the Auror's name; it might have made my case more believable. "The one who helped me, I want to thank him." I smiled tentatively feeling a little bad as I put on an innocent show for Madam Pomfrey.

"There was no Auror, dear."

Oh she was playing this game? I didn't feel so bad anymore. I furrowed my eyebrows confused and tilted my head, looking upset. But I was thankfully saved from having to continue the façade as a large set of feet started to ascend some stairs (which allowed me to figure out I wasn't on the ground floor) and many more sets of feet followed the first set coupled with shushed hurried voices. Did they not want to wake me or something? How touching. I found it hard to believe all their hush hush was all for me. They were arguing, I realized as the voices grew closer. But I also noticed how the person all the voices were arguing with didn't say a thing back.

Madam Pomfrey quickly took to her feet and hurried to the door, but it opened before she could do a thing. I smiled. The large Auror filled the entire door frame. His eyes twitched with irritation, but he gave a try at a smile for me before his low voice finally spoke. The people that had been trying to argue with him before could barely be seen behind him. He wasn't fat at all, just _huge_.

"I couldn't help notice the confidentiality charm has dispersed." The continued voices—coupled with Madam Pomfrey's disagreeing tone ceased with his words. They hadn't a clue what he was talking about—rightfully the entire point to Dumbledore's charm in the first place. I stifled a grin. There was something about knowing something others didn't.

"Yes," I nodded leaning forward to fold my legs under the thin blankets. The eyes that had managed behind the Auror now looked to me shocked. "That contract has been completed," I informed him. I had a great audience. "We're allowed to speak freely to whomever again." I told him, smiling. It was always nice to tell someone good news too. I glowed happy to have my freedom of speech back.

"Completed." He repeated looking elsewhere as he quickly thought. "Who?" I knew he knew already, he just wanted confirmation. I bobbed my head as we shared the difficulty of our new variable.

"Draco's it," I said ironically. "It'll be hell if our first day was anything to go off of." His arms crossed in more thought as a frown creased his dark handsome face. I didn't see what was so wrong with Draco. If he helped me out with my problem, what was so bad?

"I am glad," he finally said. He was probably getting ready to leave. "I am Kingsley Shacklebolt." He continued and I grinned. After years of working with him, we were finally able to exchange names.

"Annabelle Muntrealas." I mimicked back. He smiled. It's funny to think back on our situation. We'd almost become good friends over the years, yet we hadn't a clue as to who the other was. Funny really.

"I am also glad I am not required to ever work with you again."

I laughed. "Understandable," I replied and he nodded, completely serious. Whenever I was needed to work, it was never a simple stroll through a wheat field. I had been Dumbledore's "big guns".

"I have sympathies for Malfoy." And he backed out of the room leaving his many arguers to stand there, completely lost, in Draco's doorway. I covered a smile behind a yawn as I found their fish faces absolutely hilarious.

"What?" a tall redhead spat confused. "What the bloody hell was all that?" he asked no one in particular. All cured and better thanks to Madam Pomfrey; I was actually in a state of mind capable of recognizing people. The loud redhead was Ron Weasley, and, in the normal fashion of his group, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger were very near by. Griffindor's that had been at the center of every problem Dumbledore hadn't been able to keep secret. They'd caused that man a lot of grief over his years.

"Hullo," I greeted kindly waving from my perch on the lumpy bed. "Where's Draco?" I thought maybe humble tactics might make one of them slip and just tell me. Instead, the name Draco just made Ron frown and furrow his eyebrows even more in subtle anger. Poor Draco just didn't seem to have to best people skills. Ron opened his mouth to say something angry but I thought it would be nice to save myself from hearing it. "Never mind," I said quickly slipping out of the bed. "I'd rather find him myself." _–then hear you say anything more,_ I thought trotting across the dusty room

"Wait a minute," Hermione jumped up, seeming to gain her wits back. Shame really. I liked her witless much better. "Who are you and how do you know Mr. Shacklebolt?" she questioned using her body to block the doorway. Her attempt was really poor especially after seeing a giant gobble up space like a starved vampire. She had left a sizable opening for me to her left.

"Uh..." I rose an eyebrow as I'd already said who I was, but just for her benefit I repeated myself making sure she realized I'd already said my name and I thought this repeating of my name was completely useless. I had a way with expressions and tones, saved me lots of trouble most of the time. And made people feel stupid when they aggravated me. "I know the big Auror through work," I said vaguely. She frowned and seemed to try and steady her position in the doorway as I continued to approach. Same opening was still there. Tisk tisk, she wasn't too good at this. "I'm going to find Draco," I told her; she knew I had no intension of finding her approval first. "We have a lot to discuss." And before she could argue or one of her right hand men could jump in, I slipped past her petty excuse of a blockade and sashayed down the stairs I found down the hall before they had the thought to turn and stop me. And to think they'd held off Voldermort a few times. I shook my head disappointed.

"What the hell is she?" I heard Ron quietly yell to his friends as they hurried to catch up with me. Now, I thought stopping at the base of the stairs (the clumsy thump of steps quickly honed in on me) if I was Draco, where would I be?

"Now just wait one minute young lady." Madam Pomfrey (very surprisingly) was ahead of the angry redhead. The entire place was as much of a hole as the room I had awoken in; and here I had thought maybe that they just didn't like Draco so much that he was stuck with the shoddy room.

Before Madam Pomfrey could get her bony hands on my elbow, the door at the opposite end of the hall from the front door opened to investigate the silent commotion. I raised an eyebrow as my fourth year Defense against the Dark Arts teacher pointed me with an unreadable stare.

"Professor Lupin?" Had I fallen into the Twilight Zone unexpectedly?

--

_Review please!! _

_-BS_


	7. Devoted Conspiring

_Thank you to the few and devoted of the reviewers. I waited hoping there'd be more of you, but they never came :( well . . . . enjoy!_

--

I pouted as Professor Lupin ignored me and looked to Madam Pomfrey for an explanation. I watched her huff indignantly and fix her hair, trying to look inconspicuous about it. At the sight of Professor Lupin an annoying tyrant of voices flowed from the three perusing me along with Madam Pomfrey. It was almost like I was back in school, if anything went wrong everyone would start spouting everything they had to say to the closest teacher.

"Perhaps," Madam Pomfrey said over the voices and forcing them to quiet. "This girl should be questioned as well." She said straightening the house coat she wore and standing a little taller. Did she have a thing for Professor Lupin? I covered an involuntary snicker at the thought and did some of my own straightening trying to look indignant with the suggestion that I was not trust worthy.

Somehow Professor Lupin and Madam Pomfrey came to some silent agreement. Professor Lupin opened his door wider and stepped aside, through the door and down a few steps was a huge tiled room, the kitchen perhaps? I didn't want to go into the kitchen. The kitchen never promised anything good when you were in a strange house.

"Annabelle?" he said granting me entrance. I turned my head in the opposite direction to give the font door a longing glance. An angry redhead blocked my view, his arms were crossed with his wand clutched in one making it very clear to me he would use it if I gave him a reason to. I sighed mumbling a French obscenity and stalked toward Professor Lupin taking his welcome into the dreaded kitchen. My pout turned glare as Professor Lupin smiled. He had no right to be polite in my time of dread.

I knew just as well as anyone that I could have left and been out of this dirty house without a second thought. But this is where Dumbledore had wanted me to end up. I couldn't soil the wishes of a dead man now could I? What would that make me? Plus I wasn't aloud to ditch Draco.

As I pondered what defying the wishes of the dead made people, my entourage followed me into the kitchen minus the stingy woman. Madam Pomfrey decided to stay behind. The second of the three wooden steps down into the kitchen creaked with each person passing over it and the tile floor was smoothed from use. And once I decided I really just didn't care, I looked up and took in the room, memorizing every inch.

A long wooden table took up most of the room, cupboards lining the walls and a large sink to one side. At the table a pair of new redheads grinned mischievously at me, I ignored them instead setting my eyes on the only blond in the house. Draco stared back and I knew he wasn't happy.

"Your own safe house has taken you hostage," I pointed out to Draco hoping it made him angry. His intensified glare made it hard for me to cover my content smile. He was so easy to manipulate. I watched Professor Lupin sweep into my view and catch my eye.

"Please?" he simply said gesturing to a chair next to Draco. I deliberately took a seat across from the pair of redheads. I was in the kitchen; I wasn't obligated to follow everything else he wanted from me. The twin redheads grinned wider in unison. I peered closely at the two pondering how weird twins were. Then my mind flashed and I sat back watching them suspiciously. Interesting…

"That's not nice," I commented. Their grins slightly faltered and I smiled. They had no idea what I was talking about, but I continued smiling realizing the allies across from me. So, since Ron had a tendency to glare at me suspiciously and try to threaten me with his wand, I also felt no obligation to warn him. I marveled the twins—Fred and George (though how I could forget after their stint of flying away from that Umbridge woman)—ability to predict the exact chair Ron would take.

As Ron slowly pulled his chair out, he grew even more suspicious as three sets of eyes watched him closely with equal smiles of impatience. I finally looked away figuring if I watched he would never sit down. And if he never sat—what the twins had planned would never happen, and I couldn't have that.

"Annabelle, perhaps you know why Poppy thought your presence here was needed." I felt like I was in a muggle principles office getting told for beating up another kid or something. I raised an eyebrow as a fume of smoke engulfed Ron and a clatter of broken wood hit the tiled floor. I might have controlled my reaction too well and Lupin watched me even closer. I looked past him and noticed the only exit from this kitchen was the door which, I could feel from my seat, was drenched with spells at the moment. Great.

"Not at all, sir," I replied, never looking away from him. I knew I was making my self look so guilty of treason or something at the time, but I didn't care. I knew I wasn't their enemy and it was their fault for not figuring it out themselves. The twins figured it out well enough. Before he could speak in response (and everyone else objecting to my attitude) a frantic set of bangs rattled the door, everyone jumped in their seats in surprise. It's funny how a rattling door can frighten people more then Ron Weasly's chair blowing up underneath him. Even Lupin stood a little taller as he towered over the table, the gangly man he was. I heard the muffle of a voice behind the slab of wood and wondered what was so urgent. I mean they were trying to barge in when I was being interrogated for something I haven't a clue about.

With a wave of his wand—making me realizing I had no idea where mine was—Professor Lupin disarmed the door and _another_ redhead joined us. But this one I smiled happy to see, I knew this one quite well. I stood from my seat in greeting and found a few more wands pointed my way suddenly, a bit jumpy weren't they? I watched them curiously as the older balding redhead set his eyes on me and he brightened considerably.

"Oh good!" he cried walking swiftly over to me and swatting away the wands like persistent flies. "They haven't done anything to you dear." He said encompassing me in a hug. I knew I always liked this guy; he was going to save me from the good guys. "Arthur Weasley," he said stepping back and shaking my hand.

"Annabelle Muntrealas," I said back, shaking his hand just as enthusiastically. Years of working together and we were finally able to exchange names.

"It's great to finally have this acquaintance," he said smiling a cheek stretching grin. I couldn't help my own from forming. He'd saved my life so many times I couldn't count. Though I'd paid him back considerably over the years nothing could break the silent friendship we had. "Our ability to do so leads me to believe you've found it?" he said just as happily. I laughed at his eager tone and at the completely lost expressions around the room. So his freedom of speech meant that I'd gotten my second half. A very long story gone short, the drunken Seer of Hogwarts had predicted the rebel Seer—me apparently—was to find her missing half and make the dark lord very unhappy and cranky. Dumbledore had been delighted with Sally's news of me.

"Dad! What are you doing?" Ron yelled. "You know her?" Arthur waved a hand dismissively to his son and he waited for my answer instead. If possible, my smile grew as he neglected his children to gush over me. Yes, I'm that special apparently.

"It's a him, actually," I told him. He was still holding my hand comfortingly as if I needed encouragement to tell him what I had to say. "And he found me." I clarified, giving Draco some props before I broke the news that Draco was my missing piece, of doom. And now I would continue to silently refer to Draco as such: my Missing-Piece-of-Doom-That-Has-Now-Been-Found. I repeated it a few times in my head, letting the label grow on me. I grinned wider.

"Who? Who?" he asked. I frowned; would he not like this news? I was betting from the tall handsome Shacklebolt's reaction that he would most definitely not. Or at the most be very shocked and demand I was joking.

"Draco," I said cautiously. He stopped moving and looked as if he was falling ill, but his smile stayed painfully in place. It was too obvious to tell it was a struggle to stay looking happy for my benefit. He stood straighter and looked over to Draco's seat. Draco was deliberately looking the other way. Good man, play along MPDTHNBF. I sucked my lips in biting them trying not to laugh, god it'd taken forever to figure out that acronym. On the outside I made sure I was only looking equally sympathetic for the man.

"That Malfoy?" Arthur asked doing his best to sound like he didn't care. Not many people were named Draco. I nodded trying not to smirk at his silent distress. "Oh." Beside Draco's rather impressive school memories everyone seemed to carry with them, I couldn't see what was so bad with him. With _Draco_. Not his father. Now his father, whoa, that was another book entirely. But your father didn't make who you are.

"Would you like to sit?" I asked turning to position him to sit in my seat. He looked pale and ready to collapse. Really Arthur, I thought, are you not overreacting? I covered my eyes quickly before diving full force into making him see reason. There wasn't anything anyone could do to change the status between me and Draco, it just was.

"Yes, thank you," he mumbled. I glanced over at Draco and grinned when I found him watching me. Even when he was quieter then the dead, he was causing such a fuss. No matter how much people might say they don't like Draco, they still ended up talking about him anyway.

"You bring the best news," I laughed to him. I watched him stay neutral and smiled, glancing back at Arthur. "It's not bad Arthur," I said to him taking the empty seat next to him. "If you look past all the glaring and huffing, he's not so bad." I heard some snorts and ignored them, holding Arthur's hands in mine. He was going to see reason damn it. "Besides, you can't change it. I can't either; it's just this way. I don't mind in the very least." I added for Draco's benefit; for a moment it had sounded like I was bad mouthing him.

"What are you talking about?" Ron rocketed up from the other seat he had taken after his first exploded. "Dad! What's going on?" Arthur still ignored Ron and the twins as they added similar agreements to Ron's statement. He sobered up and glanced over at me. A small smile managed its way to my face as he still ignored his kids to focus on me. How sweet.

"I suppose all that matters is if you like him and can work with him well enough." Yes! I cheered silently. He was looking on the bright side. Now if he only answered his son's questions I'd be home free and no longer prisoner.

"Feel free to spill to your kids," I told him, "I mean, while you can tell everyone about your secret life, you might as well. Right?" That got some eyebrows rising like the sun. I grinned as people took the bait. Pft! Arthur was too old for me, plus he was like a great Dad substitute after Sally.

So I kicked my chair back and put my feet up on the table as I inspected my nails and wondered where my wand had gotten off to while Arthur did his best to clear the confusion as I played ignorant. I listened as Arthur started with the first day Dumbledore had introduced us. I'd been twelve, eager to start field work and thought the idea of an old man tagging along so I _"wouldn't die"_ was ridiculous. He dabbled a bit into the seclusion part of my existence, the silencing part of his role in my life—the same going for Shacklebolt. And then the whole thing how we'd never exchanged names for safety reasons. I smiled reminiscently as he lightly touched the subject of some missions. And tried not to laugh as dates of our jobs conflicted with Arthur's other life with his children (--you said you were sick!--)

"So you went to Hogwarts with all of us?" I glanced up from my spectacular nails and caught Hermione's own glance. She didn't remember me.

"Yep!" I said going back to my hands.

"It's so weird," she continued. "I don't remember you at all; I can't recall ever even seeing you." She said. My heart sank. Yay, go me. I thought depressingly. Even the school obsessed has-to-notice-everything nerd hadn't remembered me; I guess I should have taken it as a complement. I'd done my job well.

"That was the point." I didn't look up. "To Dumbledore," I said. "He didn't want to risk my exposure to anything. It would have been beside the point if you remembered me."

"I remembered you." It was the first time I'd heard Draco speak since before when I'd woken up in the dark. I'd glanced up, happier then I'd been before.

"Yeah, well, I must've done a bad job after all," I said trying my hardest to sound indifferent. I quickly looked down again hiding my smile; I'd really needed his words then. Even if he didn't really mean them, I appreciated them just as much. "So am I off the hook of interrogation?" I asked brightly letting my shoes hit the tiles. Then something else occured to me. "You wouldn't have a place for me to stay would you?" I asked suddenly looking sheepish. "My apartment sort of blew up."

_Please review this time!_

_-BS_


	8. Reciever Without Her Conductor

_Thanks for the reviews _:)_ Sorry if this is a bit late--I'm on Spring Break and time kind of leaves me around Holidays. Well, I won't keep you...enjoy!_

--

Before I knew it I was up and running for my life again. But all aside, after lots of reassuring from Mister Tall-and-Handsome Kingsley and humbly nice Mister Weasley, I was home free and instantly loved. Pft! I almost choked on the sudden ridiculous thought. I lost my footing and went tumbling down the hill inside a gloomy autumn-red wood cursing all the way. My hands uselessly grabbed into the loose thick layer of crunchy leaves and a small landslide of debris followed me to even ground.

With the onslaught of noise, my pursuer was at the top of my fallen throne in no time. The grim almost-wolf man glared down at me as we met eyes. He crouched back on his thick legs and rocketed back achieving the impossible. His eyes suddenly weren't so far away—and his breath _stank_.

After my bum's worst night ever, and then proceeding to the interrogation in the kitchen, I'd been locked away into a room I had to share with two _girls_, ones that I particularly didn't like on top of it! Besides my case of Trust Annabelle with two concrete liable and highly ranked members on my side, I still wasn't allowed my wand back. And now I hated the Good Guys even more as that rank breath filled my nose and I tried not to faint, because then I would be eaten.

Pushing the rankness of the worst breath ever to the side (a difficult feat!) I glared right back into the gold rimmed eyes. Another hour more and this man would be full hungry wolf all over my ass. It was very fortunate that I didn't need my wand; Dumbledore had made sure I was capable of taking care of myself no matter the circumstances. Another wave of that horrible breath billowed into the crisp air as Wolf Man was knocked onto his back and his wind was forced from him. I quickly dropped a knee into his chest forcing out whatever breath he might have gotten back and crossed my forearms over his neck, diving back into the close range attack of his stink.

His eyes dilated as I whispered the soft words of sleep into his senses. Now without my wand, Wolf Man would only become a strung out druggie under my words, but he had to be somewhat awake for this. Before, I'd been too angry to remember this man's name. The simple thought that these people didn't trust me but would still send me out to do their dirty work was appalling. I pretended Mr. Potter wasn't even speaking the entire time he explained the case to me. Wolf Man seemed to be on the Good Guys side, and yet had missed his final dosage of his wolf-be-gone draught and was still going all doggy anyway.

I never missed a beat of my chant-like whispering to Wolf Man as I removed one arm from his neck to reach back into my coat pocket. I felt past the long knife tied to my thigh and blindly searched out my pocket. Wolf Man's growls had subsided into something similar to a purr as his head lolled from side to side in a drunken daze. Twilight was hardly present anymore, the trees and dead branches were casting skeletal shadows across the ridge of Wolf Man's face and his pupils seemed to retract just the slightest as night came closer. No matter how long I whispered into this man's ear, as soon as the moon dominated the sky he was going to eat me. Where the hell was my damn pocket? How far could something attached to me go? Good Lord.

In the excitement of finding my pocket's zipper, my whispering had suffered a momentary glitch in rhythm. And the purring went straight back to the growling. I started whispering a different tune encouraging (almost reluctantly) the easiest instinct any man had that wrapped him around a woman's finger, lust. God damnit all to hell already. It was almost disappointing to see (for Wolf Man at least) that sleep and lust looked just about the same. Except lust was a bit touchier. I tried not to shiver in repulsion as he drunkenly felt up my leg. This new tune only caused me to get the draught open faster than he could find anything else to feel up.

I slammed my palm to his forehead pushing back and forcing his jaw open to choke him as I shoved most of the bottle along with the draught down his throat. Ten minutes later I had a sheepish wolf following me back into the hell house as the stars came out. We exited the wood out onto the street and luckily met a diminutive crowd sparsely spaced along the cement walk. I shoved my hand into my pockets passing 15 Grimwald Place at a leisurely pace. It was amazing the difference of people from the main street to the people down this small lane.

Harry met me at the door ready to divert attention if anyone noticed a full grown wolf trotting down the street with a ruffled girl with hair full of leaves. By the look on his face he seemed to have lost the bet of if I would get eaten or not. Fred and George owed me 10 percent of their winnings. It was very discouraging when only two people betted you would come back alive, though they didn't have much to go off on to judge my survival skills—hunting Wolf Man had been the first time I'd been granted the honor of going out the damn door. Though, and God forbid, they could have actually believed something Mister Weasley or Mister Shacklebolt had said about me. Either way, a girl could go crazy trapped in a house seemingly held together by dust.

I followed the wolf into the house, passing by Harry and only dumping the pile of stretched and torn clothing into his arms. I was too pissed to even glare at him. Obediently, I softly treaded up the stairs as I'd hilariously found out that making too much noise in the stair well woke up this amazing portrait that yelled wonderfully horrible names at everyone and always struck home with her insults. She was my idol that woman was. At the time however, her curtain was pulled over her frame and she was silent. I could have gone with a round of insults for everyone in the house, but I fought the urge. I didn't need _another_ point against me. Jeez, these people.

--

A boom of laughing feminine voices woke me from my dozing as my room mates burst into our room laughing about something ultra girly. I groaned letting them know that I disproved and rolled over away from the light they had switched on. Another rush of giggling ensued as they found annoying me great fun. I hated them. I hated this house. I wanted to run away.

"Annabelle," And I was more then surprised to hear it wasn't either Hermione or Ginny who'd spoken. "Come on, get up." I rolled again creating a symphony of creaks and popping springs as I came to my feet pulling my hair back, happily leaving the room behind. And I didn't care that it was Harry Potter who'd saved me either. As I finished tying off my hair and my bangs fell free, Harry silently turned from the door and continued down the hall toward another set of steps, it was farther then I'd ever been into the house. I numbly followed behind him letting a few yawns flow through my system, waiting for myself to fully wake. What was this new turn with Mister Potter? Had something changed his views of little ole me?

He stopped at the top of the stairs looking down at me as I was a few steps behind. A superiority complex? He looked sincere yet blank. About what though? I hadn't a clue. It was then I saw a letter clutched in one of his hands, the sharp edges were crumpled to meet each other as he held on to the familiar shade of paper tightly. That was Dumbledore's favorite type of envelope, something I had before thought was a useless thing to remember. Beside the letter's new wrinkles, it looked fairly new. Mister Potter had received a letter from the grave. Interesting.

"It's now been my responsibility to understand and care about the members of the Order," he finally said not wavering from my face as I still observed the letter, "I'm sorry I wasn't able to see you clearly before. We're not in a peaceful time and accepting your odd appearance and the explanation that came with you wasn't easy. And its clear Dumbledore had perceived that," he said joining my stare at the letter. "You've been a member far longer then I have, and have contributed much more then most of us." He was trying very hard to sound professional. It didn't suit him very well.

I looked up at him as he subtly complimented me. He had very green eyes.

"Come on, we can talk in here." He stepped back, allowing me to move to the top of the stairs and through the only door atop them. A large beaked head snaked out the door and stared at me. He was going to feed me to his Hippogriff. I knew this was a trap for _something_. I stopped short from the door and watched the animal suspiciously. Harry glanced to me and then to the bird-thing and was ready to suggest something else before I graciously curtsied to the animal sliding a foot back and curving an arm to brush my knuckles to the floor. Though all I could see was the head, it was obvious I'd received a quick bow in return. With the formatives through and the guarantee that I wouldn't be eaten tonight (not tonight Mister Potter!) the bird head snaked further out the door pushing Harry aside and breathed on my face. Wolf Man had been worse.

"Buckbeak, come on, move back." Harry struggled with the large beast as I stood back minding my business and making sure my own business didn't turn verbal as a large laugh. Mister Potter was completely useless when it came to animals, even his own apparently. But he was trying very hard to make sure I wouldn't notice, I'm afraid I notice a large bit more then I should most of the time. But the good thing was that animals happened to be my only normal talent.

I stepped forward behind Mister Potter and patted the beak of the hippogriff's face and it funnily enough purred of some sort. "I believe Harry would like to go into his room." I said to the big thing as I finished petting it. I covered a smile as Mister Potter glanced back at me suspiciously as the big bird thing stepped back into the room. A soft thump sounded as it plopped to the floor with all the grace of a hippogriff.

Inside the room clothes and books were strewn in as neat of a way anything could be strewn. I sat atop a low dresser in front of the curtained window and Mister Potter took residence atop his surprisingly made bed. We stared at nothing in particular in silence.

"I'll be honest," Mister Potter finally said turning toward me as I swung me feet in a bored manner, "I was surprised with your success with Hermane, and with the short amount of time that you succeeded as well." He added nervously smiling. Hermane! I thought trying not to grin. That had been wolf-man's name.

"I'll try to ignore the fact that you set me up for failure with that "task"" I told him looking sternly at him; I really hadn't appreciated that at all. Giving me an hour and a half to track and subdue a man turning wolf so I could shove a drought down his throat. "But it's clearly your fault for not listening to Arthur or Kingsley. I've known them for a long time and neither of them is likely to lie to you." I said continuing my talk as if Mister Potter had been a rude child.

"I somewhat realize that now," Mister Potter confessed, he clasped his hands together as the big bird thing gnawed on a ferret head. "I'm sorry it took so long." He apologized. I just nodded, not honoring his words enough to say anything about it.

"So I can leave when I want to?" I asked. He had the decency to blush embarrassed. I took it as a yes. "And talk to those friends of yours; Ron's like an annoying little dog and Hermione looks at me like a third class citizen. And where the hell is Draco?" I said realizing I hadn't seen the man all day. Or yesterday, I cocked my head thinking about him. When _was_ the last time I saw him? Oh no.

"Well..." Oh God I didn't like the sound of Mister Potter's voice. What happened to Draco? "We can't find him." Mister Potter then witnessed the breathless train of curses in four different languages and a few I made up in the spur of the moment.

_Don't for get to review please!_

_-BS_


	9. Nightly Rendezvous

_Sorry for the delay. Now everyone thank_ **Floss** _for her help! I won't keep you...enjoy!_

--

I bolted from Harry Potter's bedroom at such a pace that Mrs. Black awoke for the night and screamed obscenities as I clambered into my shared room to collect my coat and other travel savvy items. There was no reason not to be smart about my search. But first I was going to need my wand back. Of course I was only assuming this lovely household had stolen mine, because honestly the last I remembered—my wand had been in the explosion in my kitchen. The gossip inside my room stopped so abruptly with my appearance that I had fleeting thoughts that the gossip had been about me. But I swat those assumptions away with my bangs as they threatened my pursuit of keys. Had I even had keys before? My head was drowning in thoughts; I couldn't think quite clearly enough to keep my head above the water.

"What do you plan to do?" I took a mere second to regard Mister Potter's question as he yelled over the rant of mongrel Mudblood's in a Black house. He had sounded skeptical as if he doubted I'd even be able to find my own nose at the moment. I stood from my searching on the floor to pull on my coat. I looked forcibly at Mister Potter glaring as he remained calm in my moment of almost panic.

"Harry, I don't believe you understand the importance of Draco at this point in the game. He _cannot_ be missing." I wouldn't believe it. I pulled my pony tail out of the collar of my coat as my eyes returned to finding my keys—if they even existed anymore. "Where's my wand?" I more demanded throwing back my blanket in a futile search. I was actually desperately hoping they actually had it.

"We never had it." my scorn returned with a vengeance. Potter then realized he had no say in what I was going to do, I was going to find Draco and that was that. "The only wand that had been on you was Malfoy's, and he took it back." He paused. "Don't you at least want help?" he asked exasperated. I smiled lightly finally finding my keys and facing Potter as he blocked my exit. It was a miracle the other two room occupants had stayed quiet this whole time. Mrs. Black took a breather and I was spared from yelling.

"Who really wants to help me? Honestly." I asked raising an eyebrow. No one trusted me, and I'd rather not drag someone like Fred and George into the Find Draco Campaign. I doubted even they could like Draco. I seemed to be the only one who could stand him.

"I will," he answered so quickly my shock was smothered in a frenzy of yells about blood traitors and grimy orphans (I assumed I was the orphan). I was about to protest before Miss Granger interrupted.

"Harry, you can't go alone!" Hermione's scandalous yell pierced Mrs. Black's tirade with such pitch that even the old portrait was stunned silent. I glared as she took a low blow. "At least let Ron or Ginny or _me_ go along too." She reasoned. This was not the time to beat the biggest bitch in the world, I told myself calmly. Breaths, be calm. Got to find Draco, I focused. It was _so_ not the time to assault frizzy haired gits. No matter how much they deserved it.

I gave Mister Potter a look meant to remind him of what I'd just been talking to him about up in his room. He just looked troubled, like he had to deal with these kinds of things all day, everyday. God, it must suck to be The Boy Who Lived. Draco! Jeez, I was getting side tracked here. I was looking for Draco, that's right. This dusty house was really starting to mess with my mental health… I had no wand! Oh god.

With a determined look across my face, I finished pulling on my coat and shoved my apartment keys into the pocket. I doubt I'll ever find out why the keys were under the bed, caked under a few inches of dust mind you. I effectively pushed Mister Potter out of the way, it was nice of him to offer to come along, but honestly he would only get in my way.

I disappeared before Mister Potter could follow. I didn't need help, and I wasn't going to incorporate more people into this fragile situation. Dumbledore and I had been the only ones to know they full story, we'd been the only ones that were completely aware of how important Draco is. Of course Dumbledore had been the only one that knew Draco was my "Partner" until recently. I paused under the overhang out front a small store and readjusted my coat. The street was crowded and full of the buzz of the London people.

That crazy woman still working at Hogwarts had recited the prophecy that destroyed any life I might have wanted. From what Dumbledore had told me, the old bag had gotten a bit tipsy one night out with a few people. Sally and Dumbledore had been at the pub that night. I always get shivers thinking about Sally and Dumbledore. It's always weird when you realize how small the world really is. Sally had been in the Order, he had been very good friends with Dumbledore, had coincidently overheard the armature reciting of a crackpot Seer, and rescued an abandoned toddler one summer day. And now today everything was starting to come together, without him.

I pretended to fix my hair in my reflection on the store window. What that Sherry-loving woman had said that night had ruled my life since I entered Hogwarts. I was the young inexperienced Seer of her prophecy, and Draco was the partner I needed to find my way. In truth I had always been lost in life. I was born to parents that didn't want me, lived with a homeless man named Sally, and while we stayed together we were never welcomed anywhere. Draco was supposed to light the path. And of course a silly prophecy about a girl-meets-boy kind of thing wouldn't hold the interest of the founder of the Order of the Phoenix, no, girl meets boy and girl and boy together expose the Dark Lords one overwhelming flaw to lead the light into victory. _That_ had held mighty Dumbledore's interest.

And I needed Draco to see this flaw. And that's all, I heard a secondary rendition of what the prophecy had said and to me the girl in the prophecy and the boy in the prophecy sounded a bit too chummy. I may be able to stand Draco long enough to exchange some civil words, but I'm not going to turn into his bonnie lass.

Then right as I was about to leave the window and chance finding Draco in a place he obviously wouldn't be but because I didn't have any clue as to look for him anywhere else, I stepped in some gum. And instead of stepping _out_ of the gum, I stayed put because this lovely flash had entered my view and I knew where to look for Draco. I scowled very unhappy with _where_ I had found Draco but stalked down the walk anyway, and a bit of gum stayed put on the underside of my shoe clinging to the sidewalk with every step, but clinging to my shoe even more. There wasn't even a little hope for Draco and myself to become as chummy as the two in the prophecy. Not when he did stuff like this.

You'd think someone like Draco (who's being sniffed out because lots of bad people want to kill him) would be a bit more secretive about where he sneaks off to. And you would also think the Order would keep closer tabs on him since he's a most wanted among the Death Eaters, Mister Potter wasn't doing that well of a job if even Draco could scamper off whenever. I was a bit surprised that Draco had managed two full days away from the dust hole. I was a bit jealous on top of it. The new Order had been keeping closer tabs on innocent little me then on the going-to-be-assassinated Draco. It was clear where their priorities were taking a breather.

My steps grew angry as I realized I was going to have to floo to the place. The damn ass was lucky kids were out on holiday. It wouldn't do if one of them discovered some strange man hanging out in their corridors or something. Well, I guess he's not that old, there're still students who remember him there. But it would still scare the children; Draco's not an agreeable person.

Finding Diagon Alley was easy enough. If you knew what to look for, wizards were way too easy to spot and follow. I tagged behind and traveled in their general direction even though I knew exactly where to go. Maybe it was just easier for me to think when I was tailing someone then for me to have to actually navigate myself. As expected for holidays, the alley was packed shoulder to shoulder with shoppers and all other eerily cheerful people. How could you be happy when you were standing inches away from an absolute stranger, they could have started counting pores on your face for they were so close.

My blend-in instincts unnoticeably kicked in and I was lost in the rush of people. A woman trapped next to me swung her armful of shopping bags wide with every step and banged my elbow until I bruised a deep purple. I tried to move away from her as nicely as possible, but a man breathed down my neck when I had tried. I'd rather further my injuries then stand that close to a man like him. Our mob of shoppers past the ice cream shop at a slow-drag-your-feet pace and we momentarily broke apart to get around the small cute tables associated with the shop. When we had come back together I was brashly shoved into place next to a couple in their twenties. I could tell the man had thought of something much more worthwhile to do with his time, but instead he gave me a "help-me" look before I started nitpicking my way out of the crowd. My shop of destination had finally arrived to our left. The floo shop. A muggle would find the place absolutely mind blowingly useless. An entire shop stacked with old blackened fireplaces. Ridiculous.

I paid my fees to the overworked teenager behind the desk and grabbed my moneys worth of powder. I picked a grimy cracked fireplace and stood in front of it. The bricks had cracked in some places and were smoothed in others. And the old brass frame around the entrance was black and thickly caked under magical residue. I liked it. It spoke to me in a way the other, newer, fireplaces couldn't. It promised to get me to where I wanted to with minimal stomach twisting, and I liked its promise. I vanished in a burst of green flames. Muggles might find them a bit distasteful and old fashioned, and even if they had seen an entire shop of them they might find it absolutely random, but us magical folks (heh) find them very convenient.

I'd always been welcome in Dumbledore's fireplace. I just hoped McGonagall wasn't in her new office because a random girl that wasn't even a student anymore appearing in your supposedly "locked" fireplace wasn't easy to explain. Luck favored me this evening and McGonagall wasn't to be found in the round office. I had an overwhelming feeling that luck found Draco just as disagreeing as everyone else. I wasn't about to help out his odds either, he ran away and made me worry. The damn ass.

The halls were thankfully empty for my trip through the school. I knew students liked to stay at Hogwarts during the holidays, but I was glad they decided to stay in their rooms for the time being. The echoes my feet made in the empty halls couldn't be helped. I felt the many portrait eyes follow me and the remaining murmur once they thought I was out of earshot. My climb up the astronomy tower brought back so many school memories it made ascending stairs all the more difficult then it usually was. A quiet had settled over me, I hadn't gotten another flash since my sight on the London streets. I was worried if Draco was still even up here. Once I reached the smoothed over wooden door I just quite couldn't bring my hand up to push it open. What if Draco didn't want anything to do with me in the end? All these hopes and what if's had been piled onto us and what should come if we stood together. I was sinking in my sudden panics. I doubted I could persuade Draco otherwise if he didn't want anything to do with our prophecy.

I took a deep breath and banished the frail look my thoughts had brought to my face. Standing on this side of the door and thinking wasn't going to get me anywhere. Draco was the one with the answers, right? I was only a receiver, Draco had the real magic. And he had ran away!

It was stupid of me, but I needed to cling to something strong—and anger was the closest thing to get my hands on. I banged the thick door open and the echo was lost to the open space of the astronomy tower's roof. He turned from the noise and met my glare. And this powerful anger that kept me floating intensified when he easily ignored my glare and went back to mindlessly gazing over the edge of the stone railing. My painfully rough foot steps were also lost to the open air just as the doors bang had been. No matter how hard I stomped the noise was whisked away in the slight breeze that matched perfectly with the drooping sun. It was hard to stay angry when a dazzling splash of golds and pinks attacked your face though the leafless branches of old gnarled trees and sagging pines. And yet when the beginning of winter breeze had been so willing to mute my slamming door and stomping steps, it allowed one small lonely sigh escape from Draco and reach me ear. My anger melted. It was hard for me to stay angry for very long unless the situation absolutely demanded it, nothing demanded it right now. It was depressing how bipolar I could be.

My shoulders sagged as I completed the small walk toward Draco. I collapsed against the stone rail beside him and did my best to look pathetic and lonely. Draco realized I was making fun of him almost instantly and huffed. I smiled a little and dropped the lonely look, I still felt a bit pathetic though—so I kept it.

"What do you want?" I hadn't really taken Draco as the silent type, but I didn't expect him to speak first. His voice was steady enough—and the wind had allowed his voice to carry the message, I think it favored him over me. I guess I should have been happy something liked him.

"You left." I hadn't quiet answered his question, but it needed saying—just so we were both clear. He sighed again like he was upset with the world and no one understood him, or perhaps I was looking into it too much and he was simply breathing heavily. It was cold, and the occasional deep breath kept you a bit warmer for it. "And you didn't even think to bring me with you!" I found myself saying; I shoved him brashly and glared out at the trees again. The corner of Draco's mouth twitched and I took it as a victory, even if I really meant what I had said. I didn't realize that I really had wanted to leave with him until I said it; he left me in the dust hole by myself. "Ass," I added for good measure and the twitch grew into an almost smile.

"Sorry," he said airily—or maybe the wind made it sound so. In any case his almost smile was staying in place and I found myself doing much the same. My bangs flew up and I took another glance at Draco as I smoothed them back. I could tell he wasn't even remotely thinking of the great show the descending sun was making, he didn't even seem to notice the biting cold. His smile was growing resentfully sad as he gazed down the sheer drop of the tower. Confused, I followed his gaze and my face instantly fell. Right down from where we hung over the stone railing was the grassy patch where Dumbledore had fallen. I frowned. I understood the feeling I had been getting from Draco since I'd found him, it was guilt. He thought it was his fault. Draco noticed my gaze and turned his back on the drowsy sunset. I wasn't finished yet though; I couldn't look away from the grassy patch below the tower. That night I had been holed up in my dormitory studying, then once the rescue of gossip had reached us we were literally locked into our rooms set on lock down. No one in, no one out. I had to hear Dumbledore was dead with everyone else. The one person I had to depend on was gone, my contacts were lost. I was directionless again. It was a depressing time for more then one reason. Dumbledore was dead, that was true. But everything he represented for me was gone too. He connected me to the Order—and without his reports I didn't know where to find Mister Weasley or Mister Shacklebolt. I was lost.

In a very cryptic message left to me from Dumbledore's will I was pointed back toward Mister Shacklebolt and Mister Weasley—it had been a very hurtful confusing time. The few months I had gone without that letter had eaten away at me. Mister Shacklebolt had found me white faced and confused. And still as far as I know, I'm the only one that knows the full extent of my part in that prophecy.

"They wanted me to kill him—the Death Eaters and _Him_." Draco spoke and I was shaken from my wandering. "Dumbledore told me everything was planned out, nothing would go wrong. The plan was fine." His voice was eerily steady for what he was saying. I slid to the stone floor next to him and our elbows touched. I tried not to grimace for the bruise the shopping woman had given to me. Draco didn't look like the kind of person I could comfort easily, for one he wasn't Charlie—I wasn't sure how to comfort anyone else. I had a strong feeling hugging was out of the question. Instead I did my best by staying quiet and listen. It was all I could do anyway. "Everything would have been fine, but I'm not a good double agent—I'm no Snape." He admitted. I resisted the urge to snort—Snape was a man I would love to get my hands on. "It was my fault—then Snape had to go and make _That_ Promise to my mother." For once he sounded dejected as he told me what his mother and our old potions teacher had done. I knew exactly what promise Draco was talking about. That all binding promise that was sealed in blood.

"I don't blame you." I said quietly. I pulled my knees closer to me from the cold and hunched my back to place my chin between them. "You never asked your mother to do that." I pointed out. "You did the best you could, and most importantly you did what you were supposed to—no one could ask more." I could see my breath snake down my legs as the sun finally laid down to rest. "Students," I suddenly said involuntarily. As I scowled at the unwelcome hold my Seeing abilities took over my mouth Draco pulled me close and quickly cast a chameleon spell over us. I wiggled to get comfortable before the door was cautiously creaked open. We held our breath as a young male face peered across the round covered tower top before gesturing behind him. A just as young girl tentatively entered behind him. I couldn't help the annoyed sigh escape from my mouth. Draco's hold around my shoulders tightened as we waited for them to notice us. I really didn't want to wait around to see what these two planned on doing up here. It was amazing none of the faculty so far had done something about the nightly rendezvous that happened up here. Maybe lock the tower door more securely? Even have Filch check up here every once and a while—it wasn't much but it would still stop kids like these two from coming up here.

As soon as the two figured the coast was clear the snogging started almost instantly. I pushed my face into Draco's shoulder to stop the laughing—they were _children_, what did they think they were doing? Jeez. In response to me taking refuge in Draco he pulled me up with him quietly and we snuck off while they kids were busy. The chameleon spell stayed firmly in place as we descended the steep steps of the tower.

"I could imagine you had quite a few similar memories up in that tower." I decided an increase of lightening the mood was in order—I choose to branch off what the two kids had started. My nearly invisible impish grin was easily ignored on Draco's part.

"You would imagine." He retorted smoothly. He had used such an implying tone anyone else would have blushed. I squeezed the arm I was holding in response and tried not to laugh, I guess I wasn't anyone else. Well, the mood had risen considerably. "Would you like to run away with me Annabelle?" I smiled. Finally, I had really been dreading our return to the dust hole the entire time. At least he had formally asked this time.

"Where to?" I hid my excitement. I was always meant to be somewhere else, never to stay in one place too long. I was the traveling sort of person. We paused behind a statue and hushed as Filch's cat passed by. It's amazing how much your fear of being caught decreases once you graduate from school. McGonagall herself could have passed by and we would still be cool headed about it—nothing near to what we might have been feeling if we had her class the next morning. "I'm always up for running away from that horrible house."

Please _review this time, won't you? _

_-BS_


	10. He Knew Before She Did

_Thanks bunches for all the reviews! Sorry if this is belated but I've had a crazy school-month. My super nerd extracurricular activities got us to the state competition and then I took this huge AP Exam that took_ 6 hours_, jeez._ _So basically I've been studying instead of typing, sorry. Also, I posted a new story: it's the sequel to my Eragon fic Curiosity Killed the Cat Kai, and it's called Cats Out of the Bag. Go read it cause no body else is, what's worse is everyone's been harassing me to post the sequel :( Anyway, I have a feeling you all will like the ending...enjoy! _

_--_

We were in Venice, three days later, before we considered what the "good guys" might think of our peculiar disappearance. I was digging the Italian way of life while Draco worked on mastering the few techniques I'd taught him. If we wanted to saunter across Europe without either of the two sides seeing us: Draco was going to have to work some big "don't notice me" spells. I hadn't known they were so hard to learn given that I'd been doing them without knowing it since I was little (it's best if people don't notice a little girl stealing their stuff). But now that I could see the difficulties Draco was having, I wondered how I'd ever managed them before. And on top of things, I didn't seem to be a very good teacher.

He was glaring at me now, coincidentally for my bad teaching. It brought me back to when this whole journey of ours began—when he had glared daggers at me for saving his life. I was sitting on the end of the bed with all of the other furniture of our room pushed against the wall around me—Draco had needed prime angry stalking room. I had just finished giving a horrible rendition of what it felt like when you knew the spell had worked and Draco was far done with being amused with me. I sighed exasperated and began my own set of thoughtful pacing.

"Maybe I can figure a way to fold you into my spell." I said airily. It was hard to fully focus on what I was supposed to be doing when the long white curtains covering the small balcony kept billowing in the slight breeze and reflecting the warm sun outside, I swear they were calling to me. I really wanted to go stand out there for a while. I was lost in thoughts of the view out our tiny wrought iron balcony when Draco spoke. Understandably enough, I didn't hear him. "Muh?" I mumbled. I had stopped pacing and was staring longingly at the curtains. Draco was glaring again. I think it's his favorite expression.

"Annabelle," he said with a snarl. I frowned when he stood in front of the curtains and forced me to look him in the eye. He was blocking the wonderful play of light the curtains made on the faded rug. I sighed and met his gaze. Its funny how much more beautiful his eyes are when he's angry then when he smiles—they were this lovely crystal grey when he bristled. He forced himself to stay angry, but I knew he had calmed a bit when he met my dreamy gaze. I unfortunately had that kind of effect on him, I rather favored him angry. He sighed unable to force the look for very long and I watched his eyes adjust to a more azure color. The corner of my mouth momentarily twitched down in mourning. "I don't want to depend on you to hide me in plain sight." He said much more calmly. This stormy blue was still equally lovely, but that glass grey color really was a treat to see. "I said I'll do it myself." it sounded to me like he was trying to reassure himself something. I just smiled a weird crooked thing and patted his shoulder on my way to those alluring curtains.

"Better start practicing." I smiled wider when I heard him snort behind me. The bed and breakfast sort of place we were hiding out in for now was built right on the cusp of one of the water roads Venice was famous for. I stood out on the tiny balcony and sighed appreciably. The dirty water below was glistening with the early sun and a warm shadow stretched over the ancient building across the waterway from our room. A thin sidewalk gripped tightly to that old building and barely hovered over the waters surface. A few wandering Venetian people hurried across the sidewalk to their homes and the echo of playing children bounced roughly off the aged rock buildings. The breeze sifting through our white curtains had started tugging at the waves in my hair and at the ends of my shirt not long after the last shopper turned a corner out of my sight. We were far off from the wizarding part of Venice; only muggles surrounded us out here.

It was tough to admit that I'd forgotten Charlie for a while there; so much had happened at once that I didn't think of much actually. I felt better after Rich (that little chocolate brown owl) showed up one day with a letter from her. She had made it to New York unharmed. And though she hadn't said anything: I knew she had met the photographer I had seen when I held her left hand that last normal day. It was very clear we were never going to be those best friends we had been most of our school life. My world was here in Europe and her new world had opened up in America.

I had sat down on the weaved wrought iron and let my legs dangle between two thin twists of rail when Draco came out on the tiny structure with me. The ends of my hair twisted this way and that in the wind and my thighs were warm from the heated metal and the bright sun. It was the last peaceful moment I had in Venice.

"They're downstairs talking to the landlord." Draco said lightly. It wasn't hard to figure out who Draco was talking about. I pulled my legs back onto the balcony and Draco helped me to my feet as we went back into the room. Our stuff was already packed and we didn't even bother to deal with the jumbled furniture against the wall. I pulled the strap of my small bag over my head and perched my big sunglasses on top my head. We looked ordinary enough, I was in neutral shorts and a plain shirt with Nike's and Draco had a FIFA World Cup t-shirt with dusty colored pants and sneakers. Once we met a crowd they would never be able to pick us out. But we had to get out of this sleepy neighborhood first, and out of this building before that. I was pulling my hair into a mess on back of my head as I leaned an ear against the door. I could hear the murmur of voices from down the hall and down the stairs. I left it to Draco to recognize the voice as a Death Eater. The lost in translation fray the landlord and Death Eater seemed to be going through was buying us time. There was only one other way out of the little hotel-house other then the front door and kitchen door (which you had to pass the Death Eater and landlord to get to) and that was the old rusted fire escape out the hallway window. I swear they installed that thing the same year the house was built. Even now, through the door I could hear it creak because the wind was blowing. I wasn't quite sure it would even hold our weight. But I'd fare that rusted trap before I faced a Death Eater in front of an innocent muggle with Draco in tow.

Our only trouble was we had to pass the narrow staircase to get to the other end of the hall. We would have to risk the lackey downstairs seeing us to get to the deathtrap of a fire escape that will most likely make an orchestra of creaks and moans protesting us using it. And then the sound alone will convince the bad man downstairs that he doesn't need to deal with the muggle landlord and he'll come running upstairs only to watch the fire escape collapse on top of us and impale Draco and me with rusty railings and ladders.

With the image in my mind, Draco leaned against the door above me (because he's so much taller). I couldn't help but wonder exactly how they found us this time. We were careful; we used muggle cash and used the name William Martin to sign us in. I was itching with curiosity. How did they do it?

I slipped out from between Draco and the door to check over myself. Since the death promising fire escape seemed our only option, I had to make sure I didn't make noise when I moved. A zipper jingling could ruin us. Draco already knew what we were going to do. When we had first arrived at the small hotel we went over all of our escape options just in case—it was a good thing too, we couldn't risk talking at the moment. Draco looked at me and I nodded. He leaned heavily against the door and slowly turned the doorknob. If us being killed wasn't one of our outcomes today, I might think this was exciting. He eased the door open with the most concentration I'd seen Draco commit to something with. He took small steps farther into the room and luckily the door stayed silent as he pulled it open. Once the crack was big enough for us to fit through he maneuvered the doorknob back into its resting state.

I was ridged with tension as he readied himself to let go of the door. The door had always made some kind of squealing noise all other times we used it. We were in some trouble if we made too much noise. His grip was lessening, and just when I thought he had it: _creaaak!_

We both froze horrified. The murmur of angry talking had paused. Oh god. Draco's wand was clutched in his white knuckled grip in an instant. The silence was killing my head, my ears were buzzing with nothing and my sight was growing white around the edges. _Creak_…. Someone was coming up stairs! I looked at Draco with huge eyes, but that was before our Italian landlord/bellboy man roared all sorts of cusswords at whoever had tried to ascend his stairs. I took off once my footsteps were covered by their heated yelling match. We didn't have long before yelling took to fighting; there was no doubt who would win that. I stopped right before the stairs. The yelling was even louder at the top; their echoing seemed to be directed right at me. Draco came up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder. Together we leaned against the floral wallpaper trying to quiet our breathing. I could see the window on the other side of the stairs, and toward the bottom the rusted railing poked up into sight.

I took a silent breath. I braced my self against Draco with one hand and the other right at the edge of the wall before the staircase took over. Slowly I took a peak, I could see the huge Italian flag the landlord hung over the front door, and I saw the small desk he kept his sign in book on and the back of his huge pants. No Death Eater. And _that_ unnerved me to no end. I liked to know where these kinds of people were. I didn't want any surprises.

A worried crease was probably forming over my brow when the huge pants of the landlord lurched forward. He had pushed the Death Eater and he fell to the floor. I got a full view of his face. I pulled back so fast I smashed right into Draco. He grabbed me around the shoulders to steady me and tried to look past my head to see what made me pull back. I wasn't positive, but I think the Death Eater saw me. Hopefully since he only saw me and not Draco he won't have an urge to run up the stairs quite yet.

I risked it and took another look, the landlord was getting pushy. I wish he knew what kind of trouble he was getting himself into. But other than the big guy downstairs initiating his own murder—Death Eater guy was busy. I grabbed Draco's arm and we hurried as quietly as you can across a hall when a likely murder loomed downstairs followed possibly by your own. I was easing open the ancient window when the Death Eater unmistakably pulled out his wand. The landlord was laughing at him for how ridiculous he looked. However much self preservation was pulling me out the window—I didn't want the landlord's death hanging over my head. Gosh, I was really going to do this.

Draco gave me a look I fully deserved when I pulled my bag off and handed it to him. This is the kind of thing I do; I track down and capture Death Eaters. I've been doing it since I was 12—it would be stupid and unfair of me to let the landlord die just so we could escape. Especially since I was specifically trained to deal with these kinds of situations. But still, it would be nice if I had my wand.

I had started walking back toward the top of the stairs when Draco stopped me. He turned me around and held my shoulders tightly as he looked into my face. I was dead set on doing this, and he knew that he couldn't change my mind. I didn't really understand why he had stopped me until he kissed me. _Kissed_ me! Leave it to him to complicate things for me. Of course at the time I hadn't grown any indignities about it yet. I was just too shocked. The damn man _kissed_ me! Where does he get off doing this to me?

I was quick to push Draco out the window; he had left me in such a daze it took the loud creaks and moans of the fire escape to get me moving down the hall again. I had to head off the Death Eater and make sure the landlord didn't die quite yet. I was down the stairs so quick my appearance confused the two down there for a moment. I was right in assuming the Death Eater couldn't put me and Draco together, he thought I was just another muggle staying here at the hotel. But to him I was another muggle he got to kill.

I didn't have time to mess around with this wizard, climbing down the fire escape was making such a commotion he was ready to just skip killing us to get up there. I kicked him in the gut without a second thought before he could make it past me. He yelled some very hurtful insults toward me and my "sire" as he brought his wand up toward me. But I'd done this before, no biggie. My lovely Nike's shattered his face and he dropped his wand to howl and grip his face. I was quick to pinch his wand and use it on him. He slumped to the floor silent and the landlord probably thought he was crazy now.

Landlord called the cops and they took Death Eater guy away. Without his wand he was pretty much useless. Hopefully some wizarding justice would recognize him and take him into their custody. Other than that, my hands were clean of him. Since landlord was right there, I had to pay the rest of the fee for our room. He'll probably be mad when he sees the room and the rearranged furniture.

--

I was meandering through a street soccer game between some little kids in a longstanding neighborhood and just starting to enjoy the day again when I got to the meeting place. He was standing in the shade with our bags at his feet and some preteens giggling his way. He looked relieved when he spotted me.

"What happened?" he asked. I could practically hear the young faces fall when I showed up. In the shade I raised my glasses and situated myself out of view from the main street.

"The muggle police took him away. He's unconscious right now but I don't know for how long. And where do you get off!" I thought I was going to be cool about the kiss, but I found myself yelling at him instead. The street was busy enough for everyone to find something else to do rather then listen to us. "Kissing me?" I asked glaring. "Where did you get that idea?"

"It seemed like the thing to do in our situation." He said calmly. I hated how the tiniest thing got him glaring, but when I was mad at him all he could do was stay cool and calm. "I didn't know if you were coming back." Oh I wanted to slap him.

"So you _kissed_ me?" I wish he wouldn't be so collected like this. "You're such an ass!" He was actually smirking! The jerk! "Don't smile at me!" I hate him. I was ready to hit him when he held my wrist and _kissed me again_! I pushed him off and glared like the dickens ready to start yelling again. Then he smiled knowingly and I hated him more when I gave in. Poor Annabelle, falling for Draco Malfoy and not even knowing it.

_Review please!!!!!_

_-BS_


	11. Buffalo Bill

Traveling about the absolute muggle way gave me a sort of power over Draco; I had to say I was liking the change. We were standing in a large crowd under the busy streets of a large town in France waiting for the subway, and Draco was completely lost. He hadn't a clue what a subway was, had no idea why all these people were waiting around in a dirty hole in the ground, and kept making odd comments about the homeless man playing his violin for all of us. I had to admit a lost Draco sat up there with an angry Draco in my books.

There was a man uptown near the beach who owed me a lot of gratitude and we were on our way to visit him. We needed new housing ever since Venice fell under (not literally) and we couldn't just check out a room anymore. There wouldn't be any paper at all involved if this man uptown honored his "owe me one". It was then when a different train shot through the tunnel in front of us and roared past with a strong wind full of old newspapers following behind it. Even looking back at the moment isn't as funny as when it happened. Draco had jumped near three feet off the ground, grabbed my shoulders and was too stiff to even scream. It's funny how unfamiliar technology is to a purebred full of tradition wizard like Draco is. I should introduce him to a cell phone.

The train car we ended up in was packed with pedestrians. I was smashed against people I had never met in my entire life and would probably never meet again. Draco was clutching the handle bar between us and kept making weird faces when anyone touched him—which was pretty much constant. I have to say that if Draco wasn't so against it, I would want to ride the subway with him again—it's just so funny. It's also funny how much I knew he didn't want to be there, but he wouldn't say a thing about it—after all he's still a Malfoy, and they don't complain. He glared when he caught me smiling at him. I just smiled wider and the train lurched bumping us together with about thirty other people. Getting a briefcase in the ribs isn't such a thrill.

But all the sudden our trip became embarrassing. Draco grasped me tightly around my bruised ribs as the train continued to bump this way and that, he was holding me in place—away from the damned briefcase. A nice gesture in general, but did her have to breath into my ear? It wasn't much to be concerned about though; he thought he was allowed to do stuff like this now. I would never understand why. He had kissed me days ago, and I was pretty much in for the ride but that still didn't mean anything along the lines of hugging me in public—with a dozen other people just as close to us. And worse, since I had Draco in my "don't notice me" spell, people would bump into us more often because they didn't notice us—which the don't notice us part was intended, we didn't have much room complain.

A cackled voice snapped and popped over the speakers and the train began to slow with a grudging groan. Just one more train switch and we'd be near his apartment. I hadn't seen this man in years, I wondered if he even remembered what he said to little Annabelle all those years ago. The sticky subway doors opened with a plastic snap and the people around us shouldered their way out. Draco and I had time to breath before a new crowd shoved me back into his chest to be held the duration of another stop. Sighing I gave up the struggle, and I swear he smirked with triumph—no matter I couldn't see his face, he did.

"Who is this man we're meeting?" Draco asked lowly into my ear. His breath caused a stupid girly shiver to pinprick my spine. Goose pimples broke out over my skin despite the extreme body heat in our little car as he readjusted his hold around me and leaned closer for our private chat. I frowned hoping he hadn't noticed my change in temperature. The light over head flickered spastically and the speakers began to crackle again, this time it was only static rather then the jerked French ramble of the conductor.

"He's… a physician…. and…the lights…?" I cocked my head confused as all the lights began to flicker like strobes in a rave. The subway was beginning to rattle and jerk as it slowed. People leaned and strained for their hold on something, we were stopping too quickly. Draco's arms tightened around me as I froze, a flash had blurred my vision. With Draco so close and us actually touching—I had gotten a clear and precise image of what was about to happen. "Crap."

"What is it?" his breath fluttered across my cheek and his jaw rested in my hair as he leaned over me even further. He knew I'd seen something. In haste I pulled him even lower as a rush of angered French passengers racked through the jerking car. I crouched near the bar as well as I could with Draco still around me as I whispered a small spell into my hijacked wand. The French jibber around us hid my spell casting nicely but their angered voices could do nothing for the dread pulsing in my blood. This wasn't going to be fun.

"Brace yourself, this wont help much." I warned shoving the wand away as the glow faded. I willingly folded myself into his arms and ducked my head under his chin holding Draco tightly. He was the one offering his safety in the first place, and hell, I needed the protection. I did my best to ward away any ill injuries we would fare—but there isn't much I can without a cooperating wand.

Isn't it great when someone doesn't ask questions and just does what you want? Draco quickly folded around me without an explanation as we hugged close to the wall and our subway-train, five cars long, went from 77 kilometers per hour to zero in a matter of seconds. The screams rattled my head and the lights flickered out as crunching steel and squealing machinery encompassed my world. Everyone was forced forward into stationary plastic seats and tall poles and the closed doors into other cars. The air was forced from me and no matter how tightly Draco and I held to each other we both went sprawling into other passengers with a painful force. That was when our car derailed followed by the other four cars behind us. With a jerk everyone was forced to the left, people tumbled over others—heads hit windows and other things heads shouldn't hit with cringing smacks. And finally the pitch black horror ended when our car hit the wall of the subway tunnel crunching into the stones and jerking all the passengers one final time. The lights didn't come back on.

I could feel the tears falling down my face just simply from the experience. I was crumpled in the aisle from what I could guess, lying over and under what felt like someone's laundry bag and an uncomfortable briefcase corner poking into my head. I sat up amongst the starting cries and groans starting throughout the car. Whimpering filled my buzzing ears and the starts of names were being yelled in the complete darkness. I pulled myself together trying to get away from the flailing limps of the desperate. The tears wouldn't stop falling. I gasped in pain as ribs on my right side protested the fetal position I formed against the train wall, and even more tears began to fall.

The desperate yelling was getting louder: mothers crying out for children, friends yelling for each others safety. Even over the vast sound of yelling and the throb still in my ears from the shrieking breaks I could pick out the only English accent managing in the shout-fest. I picked my head up from my knees and smothered the pain in my ribs.

"Draco!" I yelled out joining the desperate calls. It was a frantic moment when I heard nothing from him. Did something happen to him? Was it some other British man riding the train? Then I heard him again, my name prominent from his mouth. "Draco!" I yelled again with more hope. He was close. Someone had fallen trying to move to another place—I guessed they tripped over someone else. Their grunt from impact met my numb ears because of their close proximity, even over the mad headache of yelling going on. I knew that noise. "Draco!" I said again trying to lean forward to find him in the inky blackness. My right ribs stabbed through me with a sharp pain and I eased back into my crouch.

"Annie!" he said close to the floor. His voice was quiet from all the shouts and cries echoing in the tunnel. I felt his hand hit my shin and I quickly grabbed it with both of mine guiding him toward me. "We have to get out of here." He said hissing gingerly when I touched his wrist. He was hurt too. "There're four in the tunnel—they made this thing crash and they already disabled any Apparating, I can feel the spell." he said leaning very close toward my face. I could feel the heat from his cheek and the touch of his breath as he breathed in sharply when he tried to stand up again. I unfolded my legs and with a few groans from forming bruises and my aching ribs, I used the wall to pull myself up straight. I held Draco's uninjured hand close to me with both of mine when the dilemma of all the injured people on the subway stood in our way to escape. At least in the darkness he couldn't see my tears. But on the other hand we couldn't see a thing. With care, we picked our way hand and hand in the dark through a distraught car of French injured.

"How far do you suppose the spell continues?" I asked finally over my tears. I could still feel the wet trails down my cheek and the damp collar of my shirt—but I was finally focused and ready to do what I had to in order to get us to safety. My hand gripped Draco's tighter when I almost tripped over someone's legs, he cried out in pain and I gushed a tirade of apologies in French as we hurried past farther into the blackness.

"We'll be able to get out of here once we get off these trains and out into the tunnel." We had reached the door to the next car when a new kind of screaming entered the car and a glowing light so familiar I got chills filled the car casting shadows from all the people crammed into the box. I pulled at the door with both of my healthy hands safely hidden behind all the standing passengers as the first of the harmful hexes was cast.

I was forced out of the car door as the frighten muggles, as one, took a step back away from the strangeness four wizards had brought to their dilemma. I hit the gravel ground five feet lower crushing my injured ribs and scraping my knees. I bit back a sob as I rolled onto my back and cringed curled up. Oh god, that hurt. A spatter of dispersed gravel showered to my left as someone else took the plunge.

"Annabelle." Draco whispered on my side. He whispered the four syllables of my name with concern. I squinted through one eye and Draco brushed back my hair. "Are you okay? Can you get up?" I took a tiny breath as anymore would pop my poor ribs. I could do this—just stand up Annabelle. Draco anchored me with his good hand as we (a couple of cripples) hightailed it out of there—in the dark, with crashed trains around us, and four Death Eaters looking for blood. Or at least that's what I imagined they were looking for. What else would they might want with Draco? What did they know about me?

We were feeling our way past the third car when I heard that splay of showering rocks, someone else was out here with us. And the telltale glow of a wand left little to be guessed. Oh no.

However lucky it was or not, the passengers of the second car were piling out of their car seeking personal space and cleaner air. Their rush of flying gravel covered our escape as we crawled under the third car. That car had ended up reaching out and touching the tunnel wall on both sides—creating a perfect barricade—if not for the space underneath it.

Like a gunshot Draco Apparated us out of there. Bleeding broken and bruised we collapsed on the sidewalk of a ritzy neighborhood in the upper city of our French rendezvous. I wondered how Draco knew about this specific spot but lost my voice in a hiss of pain. Damn ribs. Draco was biting his lip, but otherwise could hide his pain better then me. He was cradling that injured wrist and his temple had been bleeding adding a splash of red to his white blond hair. His cheekbone was bruised under one eye and his grey pants had a new rip in them—though I'd have to say it added more character to them. I sighed lolling my head back hoping I didn't look as bad as him.

The only good news was I recognized where we were, and I could navigate to the good physician's house easily enough. I just hoped no one saw us. We looked like we just escaped a serial killer's basement.


	12. Daddy Dearest

_Thanks for the little bit of reviews, you guys have really slowed down with those. I still have the usual reviews from The Jazz and them, but everyone else just stopped :( here's to hoping you all pick that up again. I left a little cliff hanger at the end too, heh...enjoy!_

--

I'll say we gave the physician's maid a good scare when she answered the door. We could stand well enough on our own, but my arms were scraped and bruised holding my ribs in place, and Draco was bleeding from his temple again with his good hand pressed to the cut. She might have closed the door on us then if the Doctor's son hadn't walked down the stairs to see who was at the door. He was a tall twenty-something man with a very English look to him and a promising career in his father's field of work. It'd been an ordeal surrounding him that introduced me to the Doctor. I had saved the Doctor's son's life after a blackmail attempt from the darker side of the wizarding race. The Doctor and his family were muggles, and his son's memory had been wiped clean of the incident—but there were some people who resisted the effects. Meeting eyes with the Doctor's son convinced me he was one of those few selected to hold the gift.

He stopped the maid from shutting the door on our faces and gazed down at me completely unguarded. He was handsome in an older era kind of way. He had a big English nose and a firm jaw with dark brown eyes that matched his hair. His clothes were fine and clean as expected of his status.

"I know you." he said firmly. It was clear I wouldn't be able to play off any uncertainty he might have had to make him think otherwise. Besides, I kind of needed his help right now. He took up most of the doorway; he was a little chubby from the well taken care of lifestyle his father provided, but still easy on the eyes. He seemed a perfect contrast to Draco's lean, pale presence. "But you were younger then,"

"Is your father in?" I asked before he could start spouting more in front of his maid. She was as muggle as you could get. Her distaste for us was instinct; she knew she wanted nothing to do with us.

"He is not here." The maid spat. She tried to slam the door on us again, but the Doctor's son easily held the door open with a big hand and a confused stare for his maid. Draco gave me an unreadable look before the Doctor's son gazed back at me; he had yet to acknowledge Draco.

"He's in his study, come on in." he gestured. I looked up at Draco as the Doctor's son turned to get out of the door jam. He nodded to me in a reassuring way, but offered no more like the look he had given me earlier. I hadn't known if he would be comfortable here or not. But it was clear he just wanted to get healed up.

It was a grand house; we entered the marble front room and glanced at the priceless art littering the walls before we were led out of the room and into a just as grand hallway. It didn't seem to cross the man's mind that we were injured and needed attending to. If I'd had a more cooperating wand I might have patched us up a bit myself. I wouldn't dare risk medical spells without a wand more suited to my magics. It would be too dangerous.

We stopped outside one of the rich mahogany doors and the man knocked. He was rather informal for a man of British descent. He had yet to introduce himself or ask for our names. A murmur barked through the door as if too busy to form words, but it was clear the Doctor didn't want any distractions. His son didn't honor his wordless "go away".

The door opened silently as a well oiled door does and the Doctor looked up from his fort of books ready to yell before his eyes caught mine and glanced over Draco. He recognized me, but he didn't want to admit it to himself. At least he noticed a wounded person when he saw one, as a Doctor should.

"You bring strangers into my house and don't even tend to their injuries!" he said growing pink in the face. He stood from his desk on his long spindly legs and glared at his son. "Well? Bring them here boy!" he said loosing a few words to his suppressed French accent. At one time, the Doctor had been incredibly handsome with his French features, straw hair, and blue eyes. But after his wife died, he grew gray, hollowed eyed, and thin. The Doctor's wife had provided the English genes to turn their son into the model Brit he was. I'd met the Doctor's wife once, I didn't like her much. I used to like the Doctor, but he'd grown bitter, and it's hard to find what made you like a person once they'd grown bitter.

The son quickly gestured us into the room completely unfazed by his fathers temper. But before he could follow us in, his father waved a dismissive hand at him and yelled some more. And then we were alone with the simmering doctor, his mellowing gaze was focused on me. He took a deep breath and settled into his chair again folding his fingers together and resting them on his desk behind the fortress of books.

"I knew I would regret that promise I made to that little girl." He said. He deliberately ignored the fact that I was holding my ribs steady and was growing black and blue by the second.

"Yes, well you were in a state at the time. It's understandable that you said something you would later regret. But the fact is that you did make that promise, and I'm here to see to it." I smiled crookedly through my throbbing ribs and tried not to cringe from the pain of talking. He sighed closing his age weary eyes and finally looked at Draco more critically.

"You'll need a little patching up I see." He said opening a drawer and pulling out a small brown leather bag. Trust a doctor to have medical supplies all over his office. "Then I have a summer home on the beach no one's used for years, you can stay there as long as you can." He added rummaging through the soft leather. I was happy I wouldn't have to do anymore explanations, talking really hurt my ribs.

Later, Draco and I had a moment to ourselves while the unwilling maid put together a quick snack for us. We waited for the taxi to arrive, the one that would bring us to that abandoned beach house. We sat at a small round table inside the cramped breakfast room with only three windows looking out into a tall bush to keep us company. I doubted this room was used much at all. It seemed to have been a closet in another life—or a pantry. The good Doctor being a muggle meant that my ribs were tightly bound with bandages, our scrapes were stinging with alcohol and Draco's temple was held together with a tiny butterfly stitch. We felt clean and taken care of, but I really needed to get a more adequate wand so I could heal us a bit better. We just didn't have the time to heal the muggle way. Draco's wrist was bound just as tight as my chest and mostly hidden under the new long sleeved shirt he'd been given. His old one was long gone in the trash because of the blood stains all over it.

The worst news of all seemed to be that our measly bit of luggage had been left behind in the subway crash site. It'll be hard finding new clothes to change into.

Just as I was about to break this insufferable silence, the swinging door imposed into the small breakfast room and almost hit Draco's elbow. The maid dropped what looked like a lunch box on the table and scowled.

"Your taxi is here." She uttered with the most insulting tone she dared use. It was hard to find her behavior disagreeing, we were risking all of their lives by coming here—plus she was French, what more could you expect from the French but rudeness?

We ambled down the brick steps without a farewell. As soon as the Doctor had finished attending to us and arranging the next leg of our escape he never rested his eyes on us again. His duty to me had been exhausted and he was free of any obligation I might push on him in the future. We still walked in silence as the open gate come to sight. I had no idea why this silence should grate on me; it just didn't feel like a silence I should be comfortable with.

I slide into the overly used taxi seat after Draco and shut both of us in. I looked up through the Plexiglas that separated the backseat from the driver and read the man's license before gibbering with him in his native tongue about our destination. The wad of money in my pocket pressed into my thigh as I sat up. And yet, Draco was still silent looking out his window beside me as the yellow cab drove us out of the ritzy neighborhood.

Maybe it was his turn to realize how meaningless our travels were. By some grace of the less nice gods, the Death Eaters kept finding us wherever we went. It was doubtful that we could evade them this time too. Maybe Draco really did have a tracking devise somewhere on him…

"Have you had a dream recently?" Draco finally spoke. He was still looking out his window at the passing walls of more large homes. Though he looked away from me, I could tell he was straining to hear everything I would say. Had I had a dream recently? I always dream, every night. I knew he was asking for something specific though. He wanted to know if I'd had any prophetic dreams as of late.

I leaned my head back onto the headrest and stared out the tiny bit of window I could see. France had some very blue skies. As the taxi bumped and rumbled along I closed my eyes and tried to look back on everything I'd seen in the last few days. I still wasn't used to the effect Draco made on my gift; it was hard to force yourself to understand that everything you saw was going to happen or already was in action, especially after I trained myself to ignore most of those peculiar flashes that interrupted my daily life.

The most recent dream, understandably, came to mind first. I opened my eyes but didn't look at Draco, I had to recall everything I'd felt at the moment. Feelings inside a vision were very important. Having your heart clenched with fear or waking with such overwhelming panic that you shout was never a good sign. Even if your dream is all smiles and butterflies, yet you wake with a great fright, it means something dire indeed. The hardest part is trying to understand what it all meant.

Draco was finally looking at me, but I was transfixed by the loose fibers on the ceiling of the cab.

"Last night I dreamt we were having a picnic in the Forbidden Forest. White birds were falling dead from the trees around our blanket and Harry's hippogriff was there chewing on something while a man in the shadows cried about his missing hand. I assumed the hippogriff was eating his hand. Then before I woke, Dumbledore strolled past pushing a baby carriage and told the hippogriff your mother was burdened with child." I said tapping my fingers across my bare knees. "You know," I added before Draco could comment, "My dreams were much more straightforward before you came along." I actually heard him laugh lowly as I poked fun at him. I hadn't lied though, before partnering with Draco I dreamt it the way it would happen. I hadn't needed hardcore deciphering skills before he attached himself to me.

"Perhaps you're thinking about it too much," Draco said, he hardly sounded serious. "We might find ourselves at a picnic in the Forbidden Forest with dead birds falling all around, that beast eating some man's hand and Dumbledore coming back to life to tell me I have a sibling on the way." I shrugged trying no to stoop to his level and laugh. He grinned my way and I couldn't help the smile that broke through anyway.

"Why did you ask?" I questioned him. I still had a happy feeling flowing through my body as I waited for his answer. He smiled again and looked farther off into space than I could see.

"I was wondering if you'd rubbed something off on me." he said still glassy eyed and thoughtful.

"Then you've had a strange dream as well?" I assumed. The car was silent after that, but a much more manageable silence that didn't pound in my mind as the other one had.

I clasped my hands around one of my knees as I looked out the window again. It was a nice comfort knowing the driver hadn't a clue what we were talking about. We'd left the rich neighborhood already and were in the middle of town. The car had to stop at lights every block and pedestrians crossed the street all around us carrying their bought items or small children. We were at another light, and a taxi was pulled up next to us. I stared at the one passenger in that car as he looked forward quite serious with his sitting. Despite the near 90 degree weather and the fact that none of this town's taxis had air conditioning, he was wearing a full suit with a recent close haircut. The tall buildings coupled with the lowering sun cast a long shadow over all the low lying streets but still glared off tall windows. He was squinting through the window glare when I noticed I wasn't the only one watching the over dressed man. The other watcher hadn't noticed me, but I scrunched down in my seat so low I made sure he wouldn't see me.

That other man watching was one Death Eater I'd always recognize. I was sharing a taxi with his son for God's sake! Well, speak of the devil.

"What?" Draco asked. I looked at Draco as he momentarily glanced out my window before locking eyes with me again. Do I tell him? Hey, your psycho dad's outside. Awe man, he was doing that tricky manipulative Draco look thing. I had to tell him now, especially with that look on his face.

"You're dad's out on the sidewalk." I said still trying to be as small as I could in my seat. To my shock Draco dropped down lower then I had and stared wide eyed at me.

"Did he see you?" he asked lowly. It took me a while to decide if Draco looked as cute when he was scared if I was scared too. I didn't want to meet with Draco's father, especially when I didn't have a cooperating wand and I'd been the one to put him in jail. He probably had a bit of vengeance set aside just for me. I'd like to be readily prepared when he decided to take it out of storage. How come we hadn't heard he was out of jail? Or probably broken out of jail. But still, that should have been headliner news.

"No," I assured shaking my head just in case. I had really though Draco would jump out of the car and go face his dad down, I never though he'd hunker down with me. "So you don't want to go say hi?" I asked laughing nervously. He gave me a sardonic smile before he glanced at my window again.

"What was he doing?" he asked meeting my eyes again. Why wasn't this taxi moving? Couldn't the driver figure out we were hiding?

"He was staring at the man in the next taxi over." I said squishing down a bit farther. I was practically sitting in the floor mat. "Who do you think he is?" I asked. Was there something special about the heatstroke man in the other car I should know about? I looked at Draco again, sweat was making his hair stick to his forehead, and I doubted his new long sleeved shirt was helping with the heat. He swallowed a bit roughly before he shot up a bit then pulled himself back down to the floor again after a few seconds. I stared at him wide eyed. What the hell was he doing?

"You have such lovely green eyes." he said seriously. I raised an eyebrow after that. If he was up for making jokes I hoped that meant everything was okay. "In this light their quite stunning." I was glaring by now. Was he going to tell me what his jump up showed him? Or was he going to continue rambling about my eyes? He may have been the Prince of Slytherin, but Draco couldn't hold a face for long. He broke his serious look and smiled reaching out to touching my face; I was still glaring wondering what he was getting at. He stroked my cheek with his thumb when I sighed grudgingly and dropped my glare. I pushed his hand away and gave him a stern look.

"What is it?" I asked. "Is your dad still out there?" Draco frowned.

That's when I heard the first yell.

_Do review this time. Please, how am I supposed to get chapters out faster if I have a weak support system? _

_-BS_


	13. A Woman's Revenge

_Yay for reviewers! But on another note, since the arrival of Deathly Hallows I think this story has to be considered AU, like an alternate ending perhaps? AE instead? Heh, enjoy!_

Lucius Malfoy himself or not, I couldn't resist seeking out the cause of that scream. Besides, a lot more were following the initial yell of horror. I sat up in my chair and looked out the open window. The hot breeze hardly cooled my face as I looked into the next taxi. The man in the suit lay flopped over the gaping window, dead. That was the cause of the screams. Pedestrians had stopped to gape at the scene. The dead man's taxi driver was out of the vehicle and panic stricken as he watched that beautiful man Kingsley Shacklebolt slam Lucius Malfoy's face into the hot cement. Oh good, crisis adverted. I wouldn't be facing off with Draco's dad today after all. Boy was I relieved. Though I did have to wonder if Kingsley knew Draco and I, the Order run-a-ways, were mere feet away from him. Or was he only tracking down Lucius? It would make sense if he was only chasing Malfoy senior; it was his job as an Auror after all.

I looked into the taxi again. His glasses had fallen off into the street; they must not have been too expensive because one of the lenses had a thick crack from the bottom of the glass piece and to the left corner pointing at the center of the frames. Even with the extraordinary heat of the day, his face was noticeably paling. And his eyes were still open. I'd rather not admit it, but I'd killed someone before. The dead man's eyes brought it all back. I wondered what Draco would think of me if he knew. It had been a total accident, and the whole thing had quickly disappeared before I could even comprehend what I'd done. Dumbledore had been good at covering up my mess; it made me think that he'd done it before. I still had nightmares sometimes. I couldn't believe I'd lost my grip, and he'd watched me the entire time he fell; his eyes watched me as his body lay broken on the rocks, blood oozing from his mouth. A seagull had been laughing at my mistake riding the gust of wind as it rushed up the cliff side. Arthur Weasley pulled me away from the edge.

I shook my head clearing the red image from my mind. Kingsley was looking at me, but he didn't linger very long. He had his man, and he wasn't going to risk loosing him just to make sure I was okay. He'd seen me watching that dead man. I quickly pushed the thoughts away again, once was enough for me.

I noticed the traffic light had turned green and back to red again, but our driver hadn't noticed. He was staring wide mouthed at the dead man in the next car over. He was in no shape to get us anywhere. I finally looked at Draco and nodded at his door. We had to leave, Ministry authorities would be arriving to clean up the scene in no time at all. Draco's unmistakable face needed to be long gone before they did.

We walked away from the scene at a brisk pace, a symphony of convenient car backfires had sounded in a nearby alley and we weren't waiting around to see who had shown up. Once a comfortable number of blocks had separated us from the taxi we slowed down to a more normal pace. I couldn't imagine the troubles the British and the French Ministries were going to have with an escaped British Death Eater committing a murder on French soil. The paperwork.

"What did you see happen?" Draco inquired shoving his hands into his pockets and dropping his shoulders. I glanced at him; surprisingly I met that crystal grey I loved so much. Draco was pissed, but I couldn't hear a bit of it in his words.

"Kingsley caught your dad. I couldn't tell if he'd been looking for us and stumbled upon your dad, or he was tracking your dad and coincidentally found us too." I told Draco looking up at the tops of the buildings we passed. "Who was that man, Draco? Why would your dad risk breaking out of Azkaban just to kill him?" Draco sighed; I watched his eyes shift again into that stormy almost blue color.

"I'd say my dad finally found out my mum's been cheating on him." Draco admitted shrugging his shoulders. I frowned; he'd said it so simply. He must have come to terms with it a long time ago.

"With that guy?" I asked skeptically, he hadn't been anything special to look at really.

"He was one of them." Draco said. "My mum found out a long time ago that she married a lunatic killer obsessed with humankind's executioner and she went out for revenge, shagging any man that worked for him." He explained. I nodded understanding; women were weird like that sometimes. It couldn't be helped much.

"What'd he do for your dad?" I asked still watching the rooftops. I wondered if it was a good time to tell Draco about the tail we'd gained ever since we left the taxi.

"He managed one of our family's offshore accounts, the one in Canada I think." He explained. "He'd been skiving money off us for a couple of years before my mum took a liking to him." I marveled at the way Draco carelessly talked about _one of his family's offshore accounts_, I could barely keep a pile up in my Gringotts vault. Draco had never been in my boat that's all; he probably didn't understand that some people worried about their money constantly, never knew if they had enough to buy that carton of milk. "What?" He noticed the look on my face. I wasn't about to tell him off for unknowingly waving his money in my face. So I let him in on our extra company.

"Someone's been following us since we left the taxi." I explained. "_Don't look around_!" I sighed as Draco glanced around anyway.

"Who is it?" He wondered, it was nice how he stayed calm. I knew a lot of other people who couldn't stand still if they knew they were being watched.

"I don't know," I said honestly. I only knew we were being followed. I hadn't been stupid enough to turn around and see who. Draco gave me a specific look and I glared at him outright. What was he looking at me like that for?

"You don't know who?" I couldn't believe he was going to use that deadpan tone with me.

"No, I don't know who it is. And you didn't even know someone was following us until I had to tell you, so nah." It was childish, but I wasn't in the mood for serious, I'd been serious too much lately. I couldn't take it anymore. "Why don't you tell me who it is, you're the one who turned around and made it clear we knew they were trailing us." I was trying to be sarcastic, but low and behold Draco Malfoy stopped and turned around to scan the street behind us.

"My guess is that its Potter and Weasel." He suggested.

"It's Weasley, Draco. This is why people don't like you, you know." I corrected him. I shaded my eyes with my hand as I looked in the same direction as Draco had pointed. He seemed to have given me a funny look but I was preoccupied with watching Mister Potter and his friend wonder if they should hide or confront us.

Not to look too ridiculous they choose against hiding down another street. We'd seen them; there really wasn't any need of more stalking on their part.

"We've been looking all-" I cut Ron off before he could gain any more attention to himself. I really couldn't even imagine him surviving on a camping trip. He had no tactic at all.

"Please make yourself a bit more inconspicuous and try not to talk." I told him sincerely. It was good advice; I only hoped he'd take it to heart and not glare at me like that. He and Draco had a lot more in common then they might like to admit. "Draco and I have a nasty habit of attracting all sorts of Death Eaters; we'd rather not stay out in the open for long." I explained before either of them could start talking again. "Follow if you'd like, but please don't gain any more attention to yourselves then you have already." I asked. Meeting eyes with both of them I turned and resumed my walk to the beach. Only a few more blocks by the look of it.

--

I wasn't the only one skeptical about the beach house we'd been given as refuge. It was obvious that at one time it had been quite grand. The Doctor hadn't been lying when he said it hadn't been used for years though. It felt abandoned. All the windows were cloudy with dirt, the plants overgrown, and the fence paint was pealing worse then the paint on the house. The house was three stories high by what I could tell, smashed between two other very similar houses. But those surrounding houses were better looked after. I sighed deciding I'd be the first one to go inside. No one else was making move to go near the house yet.

I held my hand out to Draco and he willingly dropped the keys into my palm. But other than I thought, he followed close behind me. Mister Potter and Ron weren't far behind either. So they weren't so wimpy after all.

The key hole was rusty, but manageable. And the door creaked ominously as I pushed the thick bare wood inward. The day was bright and sunny, but inside the beach house a cool breeze circled our ankles and shadowy corners shifted. If I wasn't a witch myself, and had seen the things that I'd seen over the years I might have been terrified by the place. Though all the same, I attacked the thick drapes over the huge windows first.

Wonderful light flooded in reflecting off the ocean. The dark corners were brightened and the rush of light sifted through the air born dust lifted in my wake. I saw through the grainy glass that only a stretch of sand separated us from the frothy surf. Draco and the stalkers were still standing in the front hall with the front door wide open behind them.

"Do shut the door," I said moving into the big, living room I suppose it was. All the furniture was there, just covered by huge white sheets to protect them from dust. The walls were covered with what I assumed were bookshelves, but they were hidden behind sheets as well. I pulled the nearest sheet free and found the most elaborate couch I'd ever seen. The seat was wide and stretched far, the wooden frame exposed and carved into twisting patterns, and the fabric was thick and deep blue with matching twists of gold running through the fibers. Now this was some furniture.

I sank into the cushion and pressed my bare knees together as I thought. It was clear Mister Potter meant to haul us back to that dust hole home again; I had no intensions of going with him. All that was expected from Draco and I was the fulfillment of our prophecy. I wondered if Mister Potter even knew about that little bit. Did he know how important Dumbledore had thought we were? Or was he simply going along with the flow guessing there was a reason I'd shown up and mixed his plans to pieces. I figured I wouldn't want to take my chances.

"There's a small orb in the Department of Mysteries with Draco and my name on it." I said. Draco had wandered into the house a bit, but Mister Potter and his friend hadn't moved until I spoke.

"A prophecy?" Harry asked. He knew his share of prophecies; the same crazy woman had sealed both of our fates. I smiled a grim affirmative.

"Sybill Patricia Trelawney had gotten a bit drunk one night at a local pub when Dumbledore and a friend had been sitting at a table nearby." That friend had been the best man I'd ever met in my entire life. I waited for Harry and Ron to pick a seat before continuing. They seemed to have mustered up the courage to step into the living room. Draco sank into the cushion next to me making our thighs touch. I made myself not look at him as Harry pulled another sheet off a different piece of furniture. It was a wonderful chair of the same color as the couch, the deep blue and dark wood looked untouched before Harry tentatively sat on the rounded cushion. Ron chose to stand, annoying fool.

"She spoke of another seer with the potential to end the dark lord. And she spoke of one other person capable of bringing out that seer's potential. Dumbledore had held onto those two keys for years, never bringing them together." I said. "It took Dumbledore's death and the screwed up mission of a double agent for them to finally meet under the right circumstances."

"You and Draco," Harry started. "You're supposed to kill Voldemort?" he looked confused and disbelieving. I'd heard his prophecy, the one claiming neither Harry nor Voldemort could exist while the other lived. I shook my head.

"No," I said. "That's all you, Harry. But haven't you wondered how exactly you were ever supposed to defeat the greatest dark lord our world's ever seen?" I pitched crossing my forearms over my legs. Harry solemnly nodded his affirmative. It seemed I'd hit a nerve with him. "Well, neither do we." I said shrugging. "Apparently, Draco and I are supposed to have the answer though." Harry sighed, and Draco tried not to laugh at me.

"How long do you plan on staying here?" Harry asked, I couldn't help but notice the drop in his voice. I took all the blame really; I'd given him a false hope. My fault. "Oh!" He jumped a little and started digging in his pocket. It looked like he forgot something to tell us, but what his pocket had to do with anything was anyone's guess. Maybe he brought us a treat?

Out of his pocket he pulled a very familiar object. My heart fluttered and soared into my throat. Lying across his palms was all 11 ¾ inch of willow beauty. I tear came to my eye for goodness sake! I leapt out of my seat so fast Ron whipped out his own wand out of fear I was going to kill his friend. Oh on the contrary, I wanted to kiss that wonderful man! He found my wand, my missing arm. God's good fortune!

I pounced Harry and hugged him around his neck taking my wand back. I kissed each blushing check as I admired my lovely wand. It wasn't until Draco cleared his throat that I realized I was in Mister Potter's lap. I climbed down still gazing lovingly at my wand; I could feel the dried bits of dragon heartstring shift as I rolled the white wood between my fingers. I hardly spared a moment to notice Harry's uncomfortable presence as Draco glared at him. My wand was back in my hands. Death Eaters beware, I was back in business.

_Please review!_

_-BS_


	14. The HideyHole

_Since I know it has been such a very long time, I will hold a small recap of what happened before so you can all get caught up on the situation:_

Traveling about the absolute muggle way gave me a sort of power over Draco; I had to say I was liking the change. We were standing in a large crowd under the busy streets of a large town in France waiting for the subway, and Draco was completely lost. He hadn't a clue what a subway was, had no idea why all these people were waiting around in a dirty hole in the ground, and kept making odd comments about the homeless man playing his violin for all of us.

...our subway-train, five cars long, went from 77 kilometers per hour to zero in a matter of seconds.

"We have to get out of here." He said hissing gingerly when I touched his wrist. He was hurt too. "There're four in the tunnel—they made this thing crash and they already disabled any Apparating, I can feel the spell."

Like a gunshot Draco Apparated us out of there. Bleeding, broken, and bruised we collapsed on the sidewalk of a ritzy neighborhood in the upper city of our French rendezvous

The only good news was I recognized where we were, and I could navigate to the good physician's house easily enough. I just hoped no one saw us. We looked like we just escaped a serial killer's basement.

----

"Have you had a dream recently?" Draco finally spoke.

"Last night I dreamt we were having a picnic in the Forbidden Forest. White birds were falling dead from the trees around our blanket and Harry's hippogriff was there chewing on something while a man in the shadows cried about his missing hand. I assumed the hippogriff was eating his hand. Then before I woke, Dumbledore strolled past pushing a baby carriage and told the hippogriff your mother was burdened with child." I said

The car had to stop at lights every block and pedestrians crossed the street all around us carrying their bought items or small children. We were at another light, and a taxi was pulled up next to us. I stared at the one passenger in that car as he looked forward quite serious with his sitting. Despite the near 90 degree weather and the fact that none of this town's taxis had air conditioning, he was wearing a full suit with a recent close haircut. The tall buildings coupled with the lowering sun cast a long shadow over all the low lying streets but still glared off tall windows. He was squinting through the window glare when I noticed I wasn't the only one watching the over dressed man. The other watcher hadn't noticed me, but I scrunched down in my seat so low I made sure he wouldn't see me.

That other man watching was one Death Eater I'd always recognize. I was sharing a taxi with his son for God's sake!

"You're dad's out on the sidewalk."

That's when I heard the first yell.

...he watched that beautiful man Kingsley Shacklebolt slam Lucius Malfoy's face into the hot cement. Oh good, crisis adverted.

"Who was that man, Draco? Why would your dad risk breaking out of Azkaban just to kill him?"

"I'd say my dad finally found out my mum's been cheating on him."

"Someone's been following us since we left the taxi."

"Why don't you tell me who it is, you're the one who turned around and made it clear we knew they were trailing us." I was trying to be sarcastic, but low and behold Draco Malfoy stopped and turned around to scan the street behind us.

"My guess is that its Potter and Weasel." He suggested.

"It's Weasley, Draco. This is why people don't like you, you know." I corrected him. I shaded my eyes with my hand as I looked in the same direction as Draco had pointed. He seemed to have given me a funny look but I was preoccupied with watching Mister Potter and his friend wonder if they should hide or confront us.

"There's a small orb in the Department of Mysteries with Draco and my name on it." I said. Draco had wandered into the house a bit, but Mister Potter and his friend hadn't moved until I spoke.

"A prophecy?" Harry asked. He knew his share of prophecies; the same crazy woman had sealed both of our fates. I smiled a grim affirmative.

"Sybill Patricia Trelawney had gotten a bit drunk one night at a local pub when Dumbledore and a friend had been sitting at a table nearby." That friend had been the best man I'd ever met in my entire life. I waited for Harry and Ron to pick a seat before continuing. They seemed to have mustered up the courage to step into the living room. Draco sank into the cushion next to me making our thighs touch. I made myself not look at him as Harry pulled another sheet off a different piece of furniture. It was a wonderful chair of the same color as the couch, the deep blue and dark wood looked untouched before Harry tentatively sat on the rounded cushion. Ron chose to stand, annoying fool.

"She spoke of another seer with the potential to end the dark lord. And she spoke of one other person capable of bringing out that seer's potential. Dumbledore had held onto those two keys for years, never bringing them together." I said. "It took Dumbledore's death and the screwed up mission of a double agent for them to finally meet under the right circumstances."

"You and Draco," Harry started. "You're supposed to kill Voldemort?"

Out of his pocket he pulled a very familiar object. My heart fluttered and soared into my throat. Lying across his palms was all 11 ¾ inch of willow beauty. I tear came to my eye for goodness sake! I leapt out of my seat so fast Ron whipped out his own wand out of fear I was going to kill his friend. Oh on the contrary, I wanted to kiss that wonderful man! He found my wand, my missing arm. God's good fortune!

I pounced Harry and hugged him around his neck taking my wand back. I kissed each blushing check as I admired my lovely wand. It wasn't until Draco cleared his throat that I realized I was in Mister Potter's lap. I climbed down still gazing lovingly at my wand; I could feel the dried bits of dragon heartstring shift as I rolled the white wood between my fingers. I hardly spared a moment to notice Harry's uncomfortable presence as Draco glared at him. My wand was back in my hands. Death Eaters beware, I was back in business.

**_And now the new chapter:_**

By some grace of god, Harry and his pet Ronald actually left us alone. It was a great miracle I could talk them into leaving us to our own devices, them being so suspicious and doubtful about us and all. Draco and I decided way before any of the conversation broke out that I should do the talking, Ron and Harry only seemed to bring up bad memories whenever Draco spoke, it was best for them not to be thinking about some horrible day in school when you were trying to persuade the impossible.

It was at that point that I realized I was in a house (a spooky one), alone, and with Draco. Hmmm…

The door was still shaking from Harry and Ronald's retreat when Draco turned, looped his arm around my waist, and leaned over me with a wicked grin. I leaned away from him and stared skeptically. He, in pure Draco fashion, ignored the look and grabbed my free hand not stabilizing myself and kissed it slowly, keeping eye contact. Oh, and what was this man up to? He turned my hand and watched me watch him kiss my palm, my wrist. Steadily he made his way up my arm, at some point he lost eye contact with me as he focused on his plan to seduce me. I had to admit it was working, ever since he kissed my wrist I was captivated with what he was doing. So captivated I almost didn't realize I was leaning back into Draco, my own arm winding around him, and my fingers stretching across his back, pushing my palm into his lean muscles.

I could hear the ocean behind us, the blurred light coming through the filthy windows reflecting dully off the few uncovered pieces of furniture. He was breathing onto my neck, his nose nudging me playfully and his lips barely touching the sensitive skin. I never knew a man with so much patience; Iwas inches away from just kissing him myself! To get this torture over with. But I wasn't one to break first. And I knew that was exactly what he was waiting so painstakingly patient for. I wouldn't give him what he wanted; he had to suffer with me. I arched my back into him silently and stretched my hand up his chest slowly. I felt him tremble and hold back, he wanted me to break first, to be the first to utter the smallest of sounds.

His hand resting against my ribs steadily slid down my torso, his fingers rubbing and kneading into my skin. He stopped at the top of my shorts, his hand inches from my newly found wand. Free from his gaze for only a few seconds I silently cursed myself and wished I could slap my forehead. Look what I'd ruined, a wonderfully twisted game of uncle. But replacing pain was a great competition of sensational touching and firmly sealed lips. I couldn't help it when I snapped out of the daze. I suppose it was instincts that ruined our session. He had only been feeling me up really, and once he was a bit too close to my wand I broke out of the dreamy happenings.

Slowly (reluctantly) I took the hand on my hip and gave it back to him as I leaned up and kissed his cheek. He sighed disappointed, but luckily none the wiser to what had ended his seducing. Who knows what he would say if he knew I had subconsciously pointed him as a threat because he got too close to my wand? I wasn't very happy with myself as it was, and what would he think? Awe, man I didn't even want to think of that.

"We haven't even checked out the house yet." I said trying to give him a reason why I stopped. He narrowed his eyes and held on to me tighter not willing to give up yet. I just stared at him.

"What could be so interesting in this house that could keep you from kissing this face? Have you seen my face? Really Annabelle, if you looked you wouldn't be able to say no." I raised an eyebrow. He was good at keeping a straight face himself, especially with all that nonsense spewing from his mouth. But I had to admit he did have one hell of a face there. I was just graced with the ability to resist. Oh lucky me.

"I am looking, Draco. Yet look at me still standing, no weak knees nor am I falling head over heels." I smiled coyly. Draco should know right now that his little charming tricks were just about useless against me. "Besides, I should fix us up since I've gotten my wand back." I said waving the lovely stick (horrible culprit) between us for substantial proof. He sighed finally letting go, but I saw that little smile of his. He couldn't hide everything from me. He may have lost a game of touching that would have led to more wonderful touching, but he'd gained a coy battle of words that reminded him how great I am. I sighed silently, he wanted the touching.

"I suppose." He said stepping back and crossing his arms behind his head in a carefree manor. He took a deep sucking breath and closed his eyes. "Do what you will Annabelle, I won't stop you." Did he have to make it sound like I was taking advantage of him? He definitely wanted the touching to come back. I couldn't help laughing when that glint in his eye surfaced again, that little glint of humor very few could find.

"Let's see, you've got a sprained wrist, and a laceration on your _irresistible_ face." I swear his chin raised just the slightest in pride. "And I've no idea what else I'll find on you." I said tapping my chin. I shrugged and got down to work. Did he flinch even the smallest of bits when I pointed my wand at him? I had to hide my smile; at least he knew enough to be wary of my wand. We were a force to be reckoned with together. No matter how many greatly promising times we'd ruined together.

--

I found a bathroom upstairs and was leaning over the cold marble counter to look critically at my face. The scrapes on my cheeks had been taken care of, and my elbows and knees were not so tender anymore. I'd done my best for my ribs, but the wrap the good doctor had given me was back in place until they fully healed. I could patch someone up nice enough, but I was no healer. What I couldn't understand was why, all the sudden, I wasn't looking so bad. Despite surviving quite a few Death Eater attacks and a crashed underground train, I was looking pretty damn good actually. When did this happen? Had my unconscious don't-notice-me spell even encompassed myself? Had I always looked like this?

I stepped back from the mirror and stared at myself through the circle of dust free glass. I never remembered my eyes being so green and noticeable, nor my hair looking so agreeable. Had those cheekbones always been there? Had everything always been there under the haze my spell had cast even over _my_ eyes? I couldn't believe I hid my face even from myself.

My right palm was white from the dust I'd wiped off the mirror. And my shirt had a patch of chalk where it had touched the uncovered marble. I wiped my palm clean on the back pocket of my shorts and leaned over the huge footed tub set up on a dusty pedestal. The sheet that had covered it was discarded on the floor where I'd thrown it. What I'd found had been an unexpected discovery. All I wanted to do was check out this huge bathtub. And I was right to be drawn to the huge piece of porcelain. It was footed with lion's paws on a marble pedestal, with gold fixtures, and a beautiful pile of treasure inside. It was an odd hiding place for treasure.

I picked up a watch and let the dull bulb light catch its shining exterior and dazzle the wall behind me. That was some watch I'd picked. I saw Draco move in the outside hall through the many mirrors inside the bathroom. He leaned his head in holding onto the open door's frame.

"What have you found there?" He asked coming fully into the bathroom and walking the distance to the tub. I turned on the raised pedestal and shook the watch to catch his attention.

"I believe I've found someone's secret stash." I said holding the watch up again. If I'd still been on the streets, I could have gotten a fortune for the watch I was holding. I could retire early with this thing. "Their very shiny expensive secret stash."

"And they'll be coming back for it?" Draco asked peering inside the bathtub rather unmoved by the horde of pretty things. "I had a watch like that." I ignored the comment.

"Most definitely they'll be coming back; something like this should not be left unattended for more than a day." I said dropping the watch back into the pile of lovelies. I inched past Draco and caught the end of the bathtub's covering sheet.

"We'll have to leave." He said already looking at the bathroom door as if the stash architect were coming up behind us.

"Not yet." I assured. "He's already been in today, the dusty footprints led me to the bathroom in the first place." I smiled cheekily as Draco subtly glared. I didn't have to tell him everything, especially if what I found led to nothing. But this time it had, and here I was sharing it with him. What could he complain about? "We'll just have to pick a room out of the way to sleep in and wait and see if he comes back a second time."

"Why do you want to stay here if we already know someone will be showing up, someone intent on protecting their little stash." Draco looked at me closely, as if I'd lost some screws since entering the dusty house.

"_Because_," I said stepping off the pedestal and closer to him. His eye twitched with my tone and I smiled prettily. "I think I know who the stash guy is. And if I'm right, he can help us out."

"So these are the kind of people you hang out with?" he asked pointing his chin at the covered bathtub. I shrugged slipping past him.

"And if they are?" I asked waiting at the open doorway. He turned and walked across the room shrugging. He played it safe and said nothing. I sighed flipping off the light and flicked my wand toward the bathroom, I heard the dust shuffle across the floor covering our footsteps.

--

The sun was already gone when our tiny room high up in the house and far out of the way was clean enough to sit in. The room must have been a maid's quarters or a forgotten storage space when the house had been lived in. A wooden twin sized bed barely fit in the room, but the tiny space had a wonderful view. The sun may have gone, but lingering rays still peeked over the horizon painting pink and red orange smudges across the few clouds sticking around.

I was hanging out the small window looking up and down the beach at the very few people out there enjoying the view and cooling weather. If I looked down I could see the small balconies attached to other rooms in the house and the overgrown neglected garden near the house's back door.

I heard Draco get off the little bed, and his footsteps came closer. He leaned against me placing his hands next to mine on the windowsill and rested his head on my shoulder watching the darkening sky. My stomach tightened and squirmed with his sudden closeness. I froze looking at the brushed pink garden knowing that whatever movement I made he could feel. Why did he have to catch me unawares? I took a breath and forced myself to relax; I could feel every breath he took. His chest pressed into my back every time he inhaled, and his exhale sounded near my ear giving me chills despite the warm night.

I yawned consciously aware of my back pressing into his chest as I stood straight from the windowsill. He was forced to stand with me, but his arms wound around me instead, happy with the change. I leaned into his chest watching the disappearing sunset.

"I want to get some sleep before our guest arrives." I said not really wanting to move myself. "It won't be very helpful if he's not the guy I think he is and I just fall asleep on the floor." I couldn't hold back the second yawn.

"Come on," Draco said rather exasperated with me. "You should have told me earlier you were so tired." He said picking me up and hauling me toward the bed.

"But I wasn't this tired earlier." I said giving no resistance to the damsel treatment. He just sighed giving me one of those looks.

It must have been near four in the morning when the stash builder came back to the house. I opened my eyes catching the subtle sound of an opening window. I sat up untangling mine and Draco's arms and legs looking over at him to make sure he was still asleep. He told me to wake him, but I never intended to. He must have gone all hypocritical on me and not told me how tired he was too, because he was _out_. But it was nice to know he didn't snore. Somehow snoring just wasn't too becoming of someone like Draco. I climbed over him and snatched my wand off the nightstand. He didn't ever flinch, he was one deep sleeper.

I tucked my wand in my back pocket and pulled the bottom of my shirt over the rest of it. I'd left the door open so I wouldn't have to fuss with opening it now. The third floor hall was pitch black without any windows, and the only light came from the open door behind me that streamed moonlight. I could hear Draco's even breathing from out in the hall and hoped our guest didn't have such keen ears.

I padded down the hall silently on bare feet and slipped down the narrow stairwell to the second floor where the particular stash-bearing bathroom was. Once on the second floor, moonlight flooded my eyes and reflected off the white sheets all over the first floor furniture in the living room I could see over the banister. Dust clouded around my feet as I stepped over the carpet approaching the open bathroom door. The light from the old incandescent bulbs burned orange across the carpet before me and shadowed the new footprints leading into the bathroom.

I silently leaned into the bathroom and caught sight of the stash owner just as he was empting a bag to add to his pile. I knew the dirty blond head, and gangly limbs that made it so easy to break into homes. I'd even known his footprints etched into the decades of dust. I leaned against the open door knowing he could see me. I'd seen Draco earlier from his exact spot on the pedestal so there was no need to pretend I could catch him unaware.

"Theodore Lionel." I smiled prettily hoping he wouldn't throw something at me before he realized who I was.

"My God." He turned. "Iz zat yong Bell-uh? All grown?" I smiled wider with the ridiculously thick French accent.

"Took me four years, but I finally found your little hidey-hole, Theo. Now give it back."

_Review please!_

_-BS_


	15. Mayisch Maatregal

_Sorry, this is pre-betaed. I waited for a while for this chapter to come back shiny and fixed but it's become a bit excessive by now so here it is raw and barely looked over, heh._

_please refer to the last chapter to catch yourself back up again :)_

* * *

Theodore Lionel: self proclaimed Master Thief of the South of France and long time wrongful holder of my inheritance from Richard Lucas. I've subtly hated him for a few years ever since he took my sanctuary away from me. And now here he is be it a coincidence that we would end up in the same house after so long or perhaps fate?

"Vutever do ou mein, Bell-uh?" he asked, I glared. What did I mean? Would he blatantly lie to me like this? As if I could accuse him emptily. My hand twitched for my wand, but I resisted the urge I always had around him to hex his ass. Instead I hooked my thumb through my belt loop and crossed one foot over the other in a comfortable manner. Theo was a muggle, and thus it was illegal to attack him with my magic-y ways, humph. A damn pity really.

"Do not play ignorant with me, Theo." I said looking down my nose at him. "You will give it back, or I'll take a walk to the local police and inform them of this storage house you have here." I threatened him with a menacing glare—Draco would have been proud … Oh god, what am I doing, focus on the thief will you? The mere thought of that blond stretch of man upstairs got my mind wandering where it should never go when I was threatening and waiting for a stolen possession to come back my way.

Of course telling me to stop thinking of Draco hardly worked at all. He was asleep only the next floor up on that small bed that could barely fit the both of us. I remembered the feeling of being pressed so close to him and the weight of his arms holding me away from the edge. Every breath he took had pushed farther into to me and I shivered just thinking about it. I marveled how I'd managed to fall asleep next to him in the first place. His palms had been pressed into my back and each finger had tapped a tune I couldn't hear before we drifted off.

"Vut as capsured your miend, Bell-uh?" Theo broke my lovely renditions of what Draco felt like as the thief inquired what was on my mind. I had no intention of telling him anything about the handsome stretch of man upstairs so instead I grinned humorlessly at Theo and crossed my arms in a carefree manor. I could play cool.

"Just thinking of what will happen to you if I don't get what's mine back." I said to Theo. He stopped smiling himself. He may have not known that I was a witch, but he did know I was capable of things he rather wished I wasn't. I could tell he was thinking just that as he eyes momentarily took on an unwelcome reminiscing look.

"Uh deal es uh deal, Bell-uh. I vill keep my vord." Theo assured me that he would be keeping his promise. His overall stance had shifted once he realized I was serious, and though this new stance was more threatening I smiled because he was finally grasping the situation. I was ready to do any unthinkable to get what's mine back and he knew it. "I alveys keep it close tu my 'art." With those words I glanced at his neckline figuring he'd kept it around his neck or in his shirt pocket. "Oh no." Theo said noticing my searching glance. "My 'art is buy no meins zis un." He said grasping the flesh of chest over his heart. So he had a more metaphorical heart somewhere?

When Theo remained silent and failed to clarify what he meant by 'close to his heart' I pushed off the door and took a rather more aggressive stance with my arms crossed. "Theo…" I warned keeping the grunt of my glare from seeping through. "Where is it?"

"Now Bell-uh—" Theo tried to regain some of his cool, but when I dropped my arms and took a step forward he threw his hands up in surrender and smiled nervously. "My dauter, my dauter!" He said hastily. "My litel gurl sed et twas pritty, so she wares et. She iz my 'art and et iz close tu her. You 'ave no need tu be vi-lint." Theo said quickly throwing his hands up and shrugging where he seemed fit. "I will get you yore tresore, no worry." He said nodding his head and looking hopeful that I would agree. So my precious piece of inheritance was with his brat child because she said it was pretty? Theo was quite lucky he was a muggle or I'd have dealt with him and gone to Azkaban over it already. My god.

"You will get it, Theo. And I'll have it in my hand unharmed in an hour." I told him matter-of-factly. I had this right to act like a mobster over him because he had dealt me a very large wrong, and he had to pay for it in any legal way I could manage. Talking down to him was vastly legal mind you.

"Right!" He said forgetting his accent with his nervousness. "You'll have it within the hour." He repeated still forgetting his fake French roots.

"Until then I'll hold onto your wedding ring." Theo immediately stopped any departure preparations he was making as I voiced the collateral bargain. Theo's wedding ring was very important to him, and this had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that if his wife noticed it missing he'd no longer be considered a man. He sputtered some letters that strung into no know words by my mind and starred utterly displeased at me. "I can't have you running off on me, Theo—and that's just what you would do!" I pointed my finger and raised my eyebrows silencing any protest he had tried to defend himself with. "I know you've at least three more houses like this with a similar hidey hole situated. You could very much afford to never come back here—so I need a guarantee you'll be here within the hour with my possession. I promise I won't go and give your ring to some little girl to wear for a few years. The ring will be here waiting for your return. Now hand it over and be on your way." I held out my hand and gave him one of those looks all women learn to master well before their fifth birthday. The look is reasonably similar to the silencing look I used on Theo earlier, but this one is the original Look women learn, it's the basis for any stare that implies a thought. I barely raised an eyebrow and didn't let my stare waver for even an instant. This look said: "give me what I want or suffer a woman scorned."

I was happy to exchange adieus with Theo for the last time far before his hour was up. We also exchanged wholly significant items and calculating stares hoping our encounter really was the last. I know I scared Theo, though he'd never admit it, and I thought he was the biggest pain to ever plague my life.

Once the thief left I climbed the stairs to the third story and cast _Alohomora_ spells like no other over the door and window into my shared room with the handsome stretch of man currently taking up all of the limited space on the bed. I yawned as I placed my wand next to Draco's on the nightstand and pulled my hair free of the rubber band. And finally before falling into the unsuspecting arms of my roommate I looked down at the heavy work of precious metal in my hand through the thick darkness. The round shape and hanging chain were all I could distinguish before another yawn convinced me to make it a night.

At first I didn't know why I was awake. My mind was still fuzzy when I opened my eyes only to stare blurrily at Draco's shirt. I was so comfortable I only closed my eyes and moaned a little as I drifted back off into sleep.

"Annabelle," Draco's voice sounded a bit harsh if my sleepy ears had anything to say about it. I just moaned again pushing my face into the warm pillow letting him know I wasn't in the mood to talk—only sleep. Then I knew why I had woken up in the first place: Draco was staring at me. I had that prickly feeling that you get when someone's staring a bit too hard. I made some protesting noise as I didn't fall back asleep and Draco radiated his amusement. So he couldn't be that upset with me if he found me funny, right?

"What?" I asked refusing to open my eyes and wake up fully.

"Its morning already and you never woke me up. Did that man show up last night?" Draco shifted and I grew uncomfortably cold without him tangled up with me. I moaned another protest finally opening my eyes and yawning. I rolled onto my back and tilted my head up to meet his prickling stare. He was leaning against the headboard with adorably messy hair. I smiled at the sight of his hair and with hopes that I could lessen any displeasure he might have with me.

"What time is it?" I asked nicely. He frowned and I stopped smiling with my defeat. Draco leaned forward and placed a hand on my side of the bed to hover over me in my rather defenseless state.

"Anna," He said reasonably. I sighed and stared right back in that do-we-really-have-to-do-this-now sort of way. "Don't pout at me, it won't work."

"I am not." I sulked glaring at him.

"You're doing it right now!" He said loud and accusingly. "Quit pining and tell me what happened while you brilliantly let me sleep through the night." Draco said leaning even closer toward me. I crinkled my nose and tried to push farther away from his accusing stare.

"Oh alright." I huffed trying not to pout. Apparently I could pout without even knowing it, and startling enough it seemed Draco was as immune to my pouting as I was to his charming smile. But as I explained what went on during Draco's slumbering dreams I figured since I couldn't help but admire his crystal eyes every time he grew angry there must have been something I had that could melt him down. I wonder what I had to fight against Draco with.

"So that's it?" He asked nodding his chin in the general direction of the nightstand next to my pillow. I shifted twisting my head around to look where he was staring and couldn't help but push myself against Draco since he was so close already. I located the golden chain hanging off the small table before focusing on Draco again. Had our brushing of bodies melted him like his stare could melt me?

I frowned when he only dropped the arm holding him up and fell on top of me. "Uff!" I complained when he knocked the air out of me. I had just angled my arms to push him off so I could breathe again when he rolled off me himself. I took a deep breath glaring at whatever I could see of him as he dragged himself up to lean over me. With a hollow thump he lowered the round gold piece onto my chest and twisted the chain between his fingers as he squinted to inspect my precious item.

I was still glaring and catching my breath as he used me as a common piece of furniture. What an infuriating man, I grumbled snatching my item off my collar bone and sitting up to tower over him for once. I clicked the round piece open to show Draco its insides. His eyebrows rose in interest and he dragged himself up next to me not even bothering to apologize for using me as furniture.

"This," I told Draco as I angled the piece so he could see the thin roof of the pocket watch sized item, "is a very important Muntrealas family heirloom". I tapped the carving with my pointer finger and I watched Draco investigate the Muntrealas Family Crest. The delicate carving depicted a small hawk in mid-flight holding a holly branch. And on the other half of the pocket watch shaped piece was the face of a large bronze dial with a smaller dial wedged against the edge. I tilted and twisted the Maatregal around between my fingers reading the many names written in tiny hand around the inside lip around the dials and paused at "Richard Lucas Muntrealas". When I squinted my eyes and sure enough I found my name carved right next to Sally's in tiny squished handwriting.

"What is it? I've never seen one before." Draco asked leaning his head against me for a better look. He had brought his hand up and was fingering the small grooves and hills situated in what appeared as a random pattern around the outer edge of the device.

"It's called a Mayisch Maatregal—"

"What?" Draco interrupted tilting his head to look me in the eye. I just smirked trying to hide my amused smile. Draco still looked skeptical as if he thought I was pulling his leg over the matter. "mich matrigil?" he asked and I couldn't help but laugh.

"Mayisch Maatregal, its Dutch for 'measure of magic', and this is a one of a kind because the inventor was killed before he could start another." I explained to Draco closing the Maatregal and flipping it over to show him the inventors stamped signature and tiny business mark.

"And it measures magic?" Draco asked starting to look bored over the matter already.

"Magic of all sorts."I agreed flipping it open again. "For the last few centuries the Maatregal's been connected to my house in Spain. Back when the Muntrealas name was more famous my Cliff Manor was the family safe house. And the only way to get in is this little guy." I explained waving the Maatregal in Draco's face.

"So it's a key?" he asked beginning to confuse himself.

"A key to all kinds of doors." I said smiling. "but the Maatregal is only linked with Cliff Manor so its measure is of menial things and its key only opens obvious doors… You see these dials?" I asked slouching down under the covers and leaning against Draco. He murmured an agreement that he was looking. "Right now since this is only reading Cliff Manor the largest dial tells you the overall status of the spells cast over the grounds. In a way this large dial tells you how safe the house is. And this smaller dial with the three hands," I said sliding my finger to tap the small bronze face inside the Maatregal, "this one shows the specific power levels of the important spells cast over the grounds." I closed the Maatregal with a snap and held it up in the light. I'd already lost Draco's interest as he was more content to finger the ends of my hair. I left out the very best part about the Maatregal, despite the fact that it grew warm whenever even one of the spells it was monitoring was interfered with my very favorite part was the secret compartment on the bottom. I held the grooves and hills with my finger tips and tapped the bottom with my ring finger. The bottom popped and I pulled it open. Right where we left it was a small moving picture of sally and me at the tender age of seven.

_Review please! I need inspiration for the next chapter!_

_-BS_


	16. Kicked Off the Pedestal

_Sorry__ for the wait guys. If your curious as to why I've been MIA for so long you can refer to my profile. Other than that... Thanks to all the reviewers and enjoy!_

* * *

It was clear we'd be moving house again. I'm sure the Doctor never thought a thieving criminal would use his old home as a warehouse for stolen items. All the same we would have to leave. I didn't want to see Theodore anymore than I already had during my life and getting away from his stash of goodies would be the first step to making that a reality.

I washed my hair, cleaned my one set of clothes, and finally attended to my poor excuse for ribs. With my very own wand back in my hands I wasn't afraid to use more complex magic. And I will tell you, being pain free is so great after being on the brink of tears for days. Draco merely raised an eyebrow to the extra bounce in my step. I had been way worse off than him so he didn't understand the relief that overcomes you when every move you make doesn't rack pain throughout your whole body. How had I ever managed to keep up with Draco's flirting in my poor condition? I must be simply amazing.

These days we had turned to camping out and avoiding interaction with people altogether. I still had my theory about the tracking device hidden on Draco, but I had yet to find anything to prove it. So far roughing it in the forest was working in our favor and I had no more reason to look for the secret tracking device. Maybe the Death Eaters just have a really good phone tree.

We were taking a break from our constant hiking so Draco could rest a bit. Another funny thing about rich kids, their not exactly built for roughing it. He glared when he caught me grinning ever so slightly at him. It was no secret that I made fun of him and his bad survival skills. I obediently turned around so he didn't have to suffer under my gaze.

He'd been sitting on one of the giant rocks littering the forest. The rocks reminded me of the ones in Fontainebleau Forest, but we were hardly near that place. All of them were a dull gray with smoothed edges and burrowed holes into the sides. They were like boulder sized river rock.

"Say, Draco." I said turning around and plopping down on a much smaller rock. I folded my legs and twirled my fingers in an ADD sort of way.

"Hmm?" He answered looking down at me from his perch. He sat still and stretched out.

"You wouldn't happen to have any money to buy these ferry tickets, would you?" It had just occurred to me that we were traveling to the next city in order to board a ferry to Spain, but I didn't have anything to buy tickets with. He looked deadpan and I laughed nervously scratching my head.

"Why would I have muggle money in the first place?" He asked back overcoming his moment of blankness. He sat up and stared a bit condescendingly if I had any say.

I frowned my disproval but didn't say anything. If he kept up looks like that on me he'd definitely hear about it.

"Good point." I agreed dropping my chin into my palm for thought purposes. "We should get to Marseille tomorrow night. And there's a ferry every four hours until eleven…" I squinted thinking that should help me figure this out better. "I suppose I could pick enough for two tickets before eleven." I concluded. "As long as I'm not that rusty of course."

"'Pick enough'?" Draco asked not sure what I was talking about. I just stared at him and he naturally glared when I didn't answer. He just didn't know how much I love the way he glares. I swooned staring at him and he glared harder. He wouldn't win this round I'm afraid. "Pick what?" He asked rephrasing and hoping that would get me to answer. I sighed standing up and slung my backpack on and snapped the clip over my chest.

"Pick _pockets_, Draco dear." I said feigning disappointment. Really, he knew the kind of circles I ran in, what else would I pick? "Now let's get going. We still have a few hours before we have to make camp." I said drumming a beat on his knee hoping he'd pick up his pace for once. Though Draco was still a bit dazed with the revelation that I had criminal habits. It's not like I pick pockets daily or anything, just when I need some muggle cash.

"Maybe you wouldn't be so eager if you were carrying the heavy pack." He said deciding to drop the topic. He slid off the boulder and straightening his shirt. I turned around from my place in the trail and stared at him nearly scandalized with what he'd said.

"Is that complaining I hear?" I asked raising an eyebrow. He actually smiled! Oh that was cute too.

"Just saying." He shrugged joining me on the trail. "And why aren't we Apparating or something? Last I knew no one could track people that were Apparating." He said offhandedly. I stopped abruptly and stared ahead not sure what I should say. "Annabelle?" He asked stepping ahead of me and bending to my eye level. I avoided his stare and he furrowed his eyebrows. "You mean we could have Apparated?" He growled. "Are you doing this just to torture me?" He asked and I frowned. He sure did jump to his own conclusions quickly. And its nice to know just how much he thinks of me.

"No, I'm not trying to torture you." I assured. "It's just an unexpected plus." He glared, but it wasn't his usual one, he wasn't really angry anymore. Pity, I really loved those really angry glares. "About Apparating… we could have Apparated to Marseille's harbor but…" I drifted off tilting my head; I really didn't want to tell Draco this.

"But what?" He prompted not letting me out of explaining. I guess if it gave reason to why he had to go through this horrible camping, he needed to know. Just to put him at peace if anything.

"Well, I have been to Marseille Harbor before, a lot actually. But…"

"What is it, Annabelle!?" He nearly yelled in frustration. Despite the situation, Draco could make frustration look quite sexy too. Oh jeez, I'm horrible.

"I can't Apparate." I said lowly and cheeks blushing. I was mortified! I can't believe I actually said it.

"You can't—" Draco said slowly, but I cut him off.

"Don't say it!" I said slapping my palm over his mouth and giving him a warning stare. I felt him grin, and it was a malicious grin if I dared to say so. "Eww!" He licked my palm and I pulled my hand away to wipe on my shorts.

"Perfect Annabelle cant Apparate?" He asked and I groaned. He was positively glowing to know such information.

"Please shut up." I said frowning at my shoes. This was my worst secret. A witch who couldn't Apparate? Ludicrous. I groaned again when he said something else along the same lines.

"No wonder you knew all about the muggle transit." He mumbled thinking back to our bad experience on the French subway. "And why you never Apparated us out of the tunnel. Oh you're not embarrassed are you?" He teased lifting my head up with a finger under my chin. I frowned refusing to meet his eyes. "And don't pout at me will you?"

"I'm not pouting, I'm upset." I huffed angrily. He smiled and that threw me off. It wasn't his usual grin and definitely not what I was expecting from him at that moment.

"You are quite pretty when you're upset." He said and I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. What was he getting at? "Don't give me that." He halfheartedly glared. "I don't care if you can't Apparate. But you can't poke fun of me anymore." He said stepping closer trying to be intimidating.

"But my faults are humiliating! Yours are just from ignorance about muggle society, which you're probably proud of." I was only upset, but Draco was accusing me of pouting again. And I _wasn't_ pouting!

"Whatever you say, Annabelle." Draco said dropping the subject and patting my head. Was he patronizing me? I took a deep breath and ignore him as he walked on. At some point he would realize he had no idea which way to go. I crossed my arms and followed silently behind him. I wondered how long it would take him.

--

I took over leading our trek through the forest after two hours of Draco wandering through the trails refusing to admit he didn't know where we were going. We had barely forty more minutes before we had to make camp, any longer and we would be forced to fumble in the dark.

"Annabelle?"

I made some kind of noise that let Draco know I was listening. We were pretty far off track, but we could make up time tomorrow if we cut down on the rest stops. Birds had been following us up until Draco said my name. At my mention they took off above the tree line and left us in the forest shadows. When Draco failed to say anything else I stopped and turned allowing him my full attention.

"What do you suppose that dream meant?" I knew what dream he was referring to. It was obviously the same dream we'd both had. The simple fact that we shared a specific dream meant whatever its message, it was something important. The dream Draco was talking about was where we both were having a picnic in a forest that felt like the Forbidden Forest around Hogwarts and Dumbledore shows up to share the news of Draco's new sibling. I of course remember it because that was the most trippy dream I'd ever had. Dead white birds fall out of the trees and this feeling of someone watching you from behind, still gives me goose bumps.

"Well…" I thought looking off to the side to think properly. "If we take it literally: we'll be on a picnic in the Forbidden Forest with dead birds dropping from the trees and a dead man will come by to visit and bear news about your mother's pregnancy." I found that very unlikely to happen. "Or maybe prophetic dreams are getting lazy and putting every message into one dream." I said shrugging my shoulders. "It's happened before. Not to me but I remember reading it from a book in school. A Seer had a vision with multiple unrelated messages all mixed into one." I frowned thinking how much harder deciphering dreams would be if every detail wasn't even related. "But in the end we'll never fully know, everything will just happen and later on we'll go "oh, now I understand." It's crazy and pointless really." I shrugged again and turned to return to the hike. We had to start making camp soon, but first we had to find a good sized clearing to spend the night. "There's no point to keep pondering the meaning behind the madness, Draco. You'll just get a headache." I remarked over my shoulder jumping down the steep decline the trail suddenly made. I heard Draco skid down the dirt path and stumble a bit before joining me side by side. The path was much wider and the boulders had backed off giving us enough space to freely walk about.

"I suppose you're right." Draco admitted. I raised an eyebrow and smiled, had he just said I was right? I hadn't even realized I was making progress with Draco. I'm shocked. Before I could say anything to this fact he cut me off. "The sun's going down. You think we should stop for the night?" I frowned as my chance to gloat my moment of rightness slipped away.

"Yeah." I agreed. "We just need a good spot to pitch the tent." I said turning full circle trying to scope out the exact spot we needed. I pushed some bushes aside trying to see behind them; maybe the perfect spot was back there.

"Annabelle?" Draco said quietly. I heard a thump but thought nothing of it. Normal forest sounds and all. "Annabelle?!" He whispered harshly. "Where the fucks my wand?" Why was Draco whispering anyway? I didn't pay him much attention as I tried to gather the bush branches out of my face. There had to be a good spot somewhere and I was determined to find it behind all the brush in my way.

"I'm not in charge of keeping your wand, Draco." I said annoyed as a tiny branch whipped my face. "Why the hell would I have it anyway?" I asked finally turning around to stare at him oddly. What was with him all the sudden?… oh. "What the fuck!" I shrieked.

Draco's hand slapped over my mouth cutting my yell short. He gave a pointed look before releasing my mouth so I could breathe. A fucking bear had stumbled upon us. I felt frozen to the very ground, I couldn't move. Give me a dozen Death Eaters any day, but a god damned bear? Fuck no! I hate bears. They maul people.

"Draco?" I asked never taking my eyes off the bear. "What do we do?" I hate bears so much. Oh God, anything but this fucking bear.

"Do you have your wand?" He asked calmly. What the hells the matter with him? How could he be calm with a fucking giant bear nearly ten feet away from us?

"Uh-huh." I said nodding my head the affirmative. I frowned clutching my hands as the bear snorted taking a small step closer to us. I made a displeased noise and inched closer to Draco. He must know what to do if he's so fucking calm.

"Are you up to using your wand?" He asked. I furrowed my eyebrows and shared with him how I was barely keeping myself standing. I hate bears so much. Of all the animals to show up. "Annabelle?" He said trying to get my attention back. "Hand me your wand will you?" That familiar Malfoy trait of little to no patience was seeping through into his words. That hint of irritation kept me calmer than him trying to be mellow and easy while a fucking bear tried to decide what to do with us.

My shaking arm reaching back into my pocket under my backpack brought the bears eyes to me. I obviously froze in complete fear; it was going to eat me first. "Give me your wand already?" Draco said completely full of irritation at this point.

"Here." I said a bit snidely and slapped my wand into his hands. If he was going to be that unfriendly I could muster myself to not be completely consumed by fear. Of course I could understand why he was so annoyed with me; he just didn't know that bears are my number one top of the list absolute fear. God I hate them so much.

"_Incendio_." Draco pointed my wand at the brush of plants around the bear's front feet. The plants immediately caught fire and this really upset the bear. The good news was that the bear became the running-away sort of upset, not attack-the-first-human-you-see upset.

"God I hate bears." I sighed collapsing on the fern-y brush around our ankles. I covered my eyes in an attempt to ward off an incoming headache.

"You don't say. _Aguamenti._" Draco remarked dousing the flames with a spurt of water from my wand. He didn't have to be sarcastic with me, I already knew I was a wimp when it came to bears, he didn't need to shove that into my face too. "Cant Apparate and cant even scare off a bear." He shook his head looking down at me. "I don't understand why I even like you."

"Shut the fuck up." I mumbled.

**_Do_** _review this time._

_-BS_


	17. Adequateness

_Here's an interesting one for you...enjoy!_

* * *

It's always a surprise to crawl into a tiny one man tent and then find yourself in a full sized bedroom equip with a miniscule corner kitchen and a locked off bathroom. This was in no way high living, especially by wizarding standings, and especially more by rich-boy-wizard standings, but it was much more comfortable than really sharing a one man tent. This was without saying that the locked off bathroom could barely fit one person let alone two, and Draco felt it was necessary to push this fact.

"Do you really have to brush your teeth right this moment?" I asked hiding behind the shower curtain. I try to clean up in the microscopic shower and Draco makes his way right on in claiming his teeth need cleaning. The fact that a thin bit of plastic is all that keeps me decent has absolutely nothing to do with him barging in on me of course. "And before, when you'd already brushed your teeth?" I pointed out the flaw to his plan.

"I don't think I did a good enough job." He supplied coolly. "Thought I'd give it another go." He shrugged nonchalant. British bastard.

"And you can't even wait ten minutes?"

"Why should I?" Oh that Malfoy superiority complex rearing its head again. If I dared to let go of the curtain for even a second I would hit him. On top of everything my legs were still weak from the bear's appearance; I didn't need Draco pushing my buttons.

"I want to finish my fucking shower." I said glaring at his reflection in the mirror. He shrugged as he brushed his teeth and ignored my frosty glare. I sighed but refused to drop my glare. I would just have to wait him out, especially since that seemed my only option. My clothes were on the tiny ledge of a counter in front of Draco, and even if I dared reach for them the shower was nearly impossible to bathe in let alone change clothes in. I was stuck until he left. "For fucks sake, Draco." I said in exasperation. He just continued brushing his teeth and occasionally eyeing the shower curtain whenever I moved.

"Language my dear." Draco tisk-ed calmly after spitting in the tiny sink. "I have the belief that you can only say fuck so many times in a day. And I think you already broke your limit for the next few days when the bear showed up." I glared even harder if it was possible.

I took a breath. "Fuck fuck fuck fuck, fuck-fuck fuck fuck--." Draco cut my mantra short with a slightly toothpaste-y kiss. He pulled back and wiped the corner of my mouth with his thumb and smiled. My glare had abandoned me and I only felt a bit numb with the shock of his uncharacteristically soft kiss. Before my gaze could clear he leaned back in for a much longer gentle kiss. Oh fuck, how could I fight this of all things? I felt him smirk that evil smirk when I caved into the kiss. I didn't even care because it was just one of those moments. His shirt soaked up the water on my skin and his hands came round the curtain to hold me.

Most surprising of all, even though I thought it impossible, Draco climbed into the shower with me. Cold tile dug into my shoulder blades and Draco's wet shirt suddenly went missing with the tug of my hand. His soft kisses made it to my neck and eventually across my collarbone.

"Draco?" My voice was nearly inaudible as I couldn't catch my breath. He mumbled some affirmative as he kissed my shoulder. "This isn't fair." I complained suddenly moaning as he went back to my neck. "You never kiss me like this." My dim gaze finally met his eyes and I just couldn't believe such an evil smile could be followed by such soft kisses.

--

The sun winked at me through a small snag in the tent ceiling and I was finally convinced to open my eyes. When had we ended up under the table? I sat up conscience of the underside of the table and the top of my head. If I could whistle I would do that long low one people do when their impressed by a disaster. Our tent was a _mess_. I did the second best thing instead. "_Damn_." I stood up wrapping the throw blanket I found on the stove around me. When had all this happened?

Looking around the tent I found my panties under the pillow which had been under the dresser (quite odd). I pulled those on deciding to hunt for my bra while I was at it. Looking for that particular garment brought me back to Draco still sprawled out under the table. For some reason or another he had my bra clutched in his hand. I couldn't help but blush when I reached for the piece of frill. He was so openly naked it was just embarrassing. It didn't matter that I'd just slept with him last night. For my own benefit I left the blanket behind to cover Draco's favorite assets.

Next I'd look for a shirt. I couldn't understand how my clothes had made their way all over the tent when I'd left them in the bathroom. I huffed sitting on the corner of the bed when I'd given up the search. I'd even _Accio_-ed for the damn thing and it is was a no show. I heard something shift and I turned expecting to see my shirt eagerly returning to me, but it was just Draco. Before I could say anything he sat up and smacked his head on the table.

"What the fuck?" He complained holding his head. That wasn't very smooth in my opinion. It's hard to imagine the suave lady killer image Draco had in school when he's only covered by an old blanket clutching his head under a kitchen table and in a ratty tent in the middle of the forest. He opened an eye when I laughed. "What do you find so amusing?" He asked tentatively touching the top of his forehead and wincing.

"Oh nothing." I said waving a hand and leaning back on the bed. "Just…" I changed my mind and didn't say anything. Draco seemed to not like my lingering thought.

"'Just…' what?" He asked narrowing his eyes and wrapping the blanket around his hips. Thank god too, I didn't think I could act cool if Draco was stark naked in front of me.

"It's nothing. I was just thinking of something from our school days." I said waving my hand again. I'm positive he wouldn't want to hear me make fun of him; he's so sensitive about that stuff. Besides, I don't think his ego could take ridicule in his naked state.

"I thought for sure you were going to bring up the sex last night." He said almost quietly. I frowned.

"I was going to avoid it at all costs, but you brought it up so…" I frowned even deeper not really wanting to say anything, but I just had to. "It was awful."

"Horrible." He agreed. We were silent for a long moment just avoiding each other's eyes. I think someone was torturing me. I finally had the Biggest Sex God of Hogwarts History to myself, and he just couldn't do it for me.

"Worst sex of my life." I did that sort of 'hold your mouth and look big eyed at the one you've just dissed' sort of thing. I didn't mean to say anything so hurtful, but the words just fell out like your least favorite food sneaking into your sandwich.

"I wouldn't go that far." He complained looking wounded. Even if I regretted saying my little statement it didn't make it any less true. I'd never had such awful sex, and who would have thought that Draco Malfoy would hold the title.

The worst part was we both weren't saying what was foremost on our minds: something hadn't felt natural last night. Anything past the initial start in the shower had felt awkward and blurry. The horrible sexual tension between us won out in the end and we forced whatever was holding us back to go mind its own fucking business. I bowed my head in pure depression, if I'd just listened to that feeling tugging my shoulder back I would have been spared the worst night ever spent in the history of sex. This includes all the first clumsy discoveries made in the early stages of man, this includes all the disastrous threesomes ever attempted, and this includes every time some poor man found out his lover for the night wasn't really a woman.

"Please don't tell me you've had worse than that." I pleaded with Draco after his counter complaint had processed with me. "Don't make me pity you too on top of all this." I frowned already starting to pity him because his silence said plenty.

--

Eventually my shirt returned and we packed up ready to enter civilization again. Unfortunately it took most of the day to reach the city and the rest of it to get across town to the harbor. And despite my graceless behavior ever since last night I was still able to make the most of the twenty minutes before the last boat left for the territory Gibraltar: enough for two tickets and a nice new outfit once we arrived. I was finally returning to my favorite place in the world.

I would have to admit that this was my least favorite stretch of the race with Draco so far. I would have gladly jumped over a brick wall again with nothing but my butt to break my fall and I would have rejoiced if we went for another underground transit crash, but I just couldn't take this strained silence and shifting eyes between us. We sat in our seats on the ferry under a dim bulb barely managing against the dark and tried our best to forget what happened in the woods. I felt the worst when I knew under any other circumstances Draco would have gladly taken advantage of the nearly empty boat and bad lighting to tease me further. I heaved an overwhelmingly depressing sigh. And even worse: the thought of Draco kissing me just gave me the willies.

"What?" He asked not looking away from the dark waters. "You want to say more about my performance?" He said almost bitterly. I was completely shocked for my part because I had never personally ridiculed him like he was accusing me of. And this made me indignant.

"I said it was the worst sex of my life." I whispered harshly in the off-chance that someone on the late night boat with us spoke English. "I didn't say it was all your fault." I glared because I was upset that he would be angry with me for something I never did. "I was absolutely horrible myself, you know." Then I realized what I'd said and covered my eyes. "How humiliating." I moaned leaning back in my seat and wishing I could sink to the bottom of the Mediterranean.

"My sentiments exactly." Draco said joining me in self loathing. "The last thing I wanted was you thinking I'm a complete joke between the sheets." I almost laughed at his comment.

"No, Draco." I said finally looking him in the face since yesterday. "Half the girls of Hogwarts can vouch for your… _adequateness_." I said after searching for the least embarrassing word. "This just seems to be someone's cruel joke." I sighed.

"A joke?!" He nearly yelled. "Annabelle, it is _no_ joke to mess with another man's pecker." I couldn't help but giggle. No girl can listen to that without at least smiling. Draco didn't find it funny though. He was still seriously upset and not even remotely any fun. I missed the good old days: when sex was still wonderful and Draco's company was preferable to a pack of Death Eaters.

_Review por favor!_

_-BS_


	18. You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling

"You know, ever since that catastrophic incident I've been able to think of things other than you whenever you're near by. Before it was completely impossible to even contemplate what I'd be doing that day." I stopped reading whatever I was flipping through and stared at Draco. He was sitting at the table with a book large enough to hide in and not to mention staring oddly at me. What a peculiar thing to say so out of the blue like that.

"How so?" I asked looking back down at the rather large book balanced open on my arm. I knew what I was researching for, but I hadn't a clue what Draco thought he was looking for. And I didn't know what the book of ancient maps he was flipping through would do for him.

"Well," He said tuning the giant page and seemed to deem it useless and turned another page. "Before all I could think about was the curve of your shoulder or the line of your neck… oh and I could never stop thinking about your wrists, weird huh?" He asked looking up from the page. I wasn't sure what I should think about his confession. Lucky for me he didn't wait for me to say anything about it. "But now I think I'm much more efficient. We'll definitely find out what that prophecy said we would find like this. You don't interfere with my competence any longer. You probably came to the conclusion that I was useless, but I'll show you now." He promised. "I'm an effective wizard with the proper skills to show you up Miss Perfect." He teased in an absolutely non-lewd way. It was simply mind-boggling to listen to him speak now.

"So you're not even curious about what happened?" It's a bit unnerving how easily I'd pushed aside his weird confession, before I would bet good money I'd have been flustered and embarrassed. Now I was only surprised he wasn't upset with his loss of lovin' ability. But seriously, my wrists? Of all things…

"Nothing happened; we're just not a match." He shrugged. "Not compatible." He made a little frown, but he didn't mean it. He really pisses me off.

"You never noticed it? Whenever we got too close you never noticed that oppressive bit of magic pushing us away?" I thought even Draco would have noticed that. Something getting in the way of his (past) favorite activity I would think would catch his attention very easily.

"I think I just got through telling you how I couldn't think of anything but you." Draco said still disinterested. Hmm… wasn't this peculiar? And here I'd thought Draco had been a competent wizard, but I couldn't even rely on him to notice something so obvious. I still kick myself whenever I remember I'd ignored that bit of magic and slept with Draco anyway. That magic was obviously there for my benefit, unless it had something to do with the sex being horrible in the first place. But no, I don't think sex with Draco on normal no-magic-involvement terms would be horrible, in fact I would bet it's quite grand. Unfortunately, I can't even imagine what DracoSex would be like because I'm absolutely not interested, which is very alarming and why I'm researching. Somewhere along the line of this adventure I'd been tampered with, and of all things to mess with why did it have to be my sex drive?

And so, there is one thing I'm always forced to admit, and it's that I'm horribly curious. And if even messing with another man's "pecker" won't rally Draco to the forces, I'm violently pushed toward finding the cause of all this by my nagging curiosity. That's my reason for occupying my late adoptive father's rather useful library. I have to get to the bottom of this or I'll never be able to sleep again (or rather I'll sleep the rest of my life un-wonderfully-interrupted). And why Draco is here? I couldn't say.

"Draco." I said not looking up because I'd found something a bit interesting in the book I was holding. "What in the world are you doing in here anyway?" He merely shrugged and turned another page. How helpful. Wasn't he supposed to be proving to me how competent he is?

I changed my mind about the book I was holding and snapped it shut avoiding the cloud of dust that exploded from the pages. We had arrived in my old neighborhood very early that morning. At the time we'd still gone without saying anything to each other since the boat ride. But when the need to sleep interfered with my ability to navigate the Mayisch Maatregal, (my gold pocket watch-like device that's connected to my home, Cliffside Manor), Draco broke that silence with his annoying voice asking which would happen first: the gate opening or the Death Eater's finding us again.

It's sad to admit that once Draco's sexiness is no longer sexy he's a complete nightmare. He's boring beyond belief and not to mention so annoying I could just drown him. That's why, for the sake of the wizarding world and in the name of bringing down the Dark Lord, I must reclaim Draco's sexiness lest I kill him first.

My valiant search for the cure led to me banging my head against the library table and squeezing the life out of my knees so I wouldn't ring Draco's neck. Didn't he know how unbearable his little remarks were without any kind of innuendo behind them? I couldn't take this anymore. I completely understand why straight men like Mister Potter and his red headed minion couldn't stand Draco, without sex appeal Draco is merely wasted space. It's rather sad actually. I ceased the perpetual banging of my head to close my eyes and try to think of something spine tingling-ly naughty. Nothing.

I'm pretty sure that I growled when I angrily thrashed the table top for not allowing me the simple pleasures in life. I hated it when something like this happened to me and I couldn't find the source of it. Was this punishment for ignoring the Don't-Sleep-With-Draco-Warning I'd been feeling since the tussle in my apartment? Because I'm pretty sure the worst sex of my life is punishment enough. No desire to ever have sex again is just overkill as far as punishment is concerned. Now if we're talking torture, this is still pretty bad, but believable.

But why are we being tortured? And me more specifically because Draco doesn't seem to mind his situation the slightest, and I'll probably end up killing him within the next hour anyway. Now on to my investigation: people who want to hurt us: lots. People who can perform advanced magic: fewer. And people who had the time to develop their want to hurt us and time to learn advanced magic: practically zero. So I'm back to square one with that discovery, meaning the culprit _didn't want to cause harm?_ What a load of crock…I think.

A magic this complex and so very specific would take time, and allowing the possibility that this spell wasn't meant to harm I couldn't help but think of Dumbledore. I know! I know! Bad me, bad. Accusing the craziest good guy to ever exist in the magical world was horrible of me. But who else would care about Draco's and mine sex life? Dumbledore was always just weird like that. And by simply following this train of thought, this magic would---theoretically—have been put in place for good reason. And if I were to follow this farther, that would mean Draco was right in saying that without the constant thought of jumping each other bones every minute of every day we would accomplish this Discover-His-Weakness nonsense. Oh did I say that? Oops. Not nonsense, our little mission is completely relevant. Very important indeed—Why the fuck couldn't the Bloody Boy Who Lived deal with this shit? I handled the little hooded men who caused mayhem with the people, and Mister Potter dealt with the Man in Charge, not me for Christ's sake. I bet Mister Potter still had a healthy sex drive. Lucky bastard.

While mentally cursing the wizarding world's white knight my sight blurred a bit and I was warned of Draco's extreme annoyingness that would rear its head any moment and cause me to do something very bad to him. So to avoid crippling the Malfoy heir I stood and announced I would be leaving the library and wished to not hear or see an inch of Draco and anything Draco related for at least three hours. And in Draco's most clever moment of his life, he said nothing. At least he could still take a hint. I gathered the most promising books I'd found in my research and high tailed it out of there before he could change his mind about the silence.

From the library I walked through the halls of Cliffside Manor until I was back to the main part of the house. Sally had given me my own Study the day we moved back into his old home, and I liked to think I worked best surrounded by the things I'd collected through my years with Sally. More specifically I was headed for the balcony hanging over the cliffs that my Study had acquired sometime in the 1700's. Perhaps some sun would also do me good. And I liked to think I was safe from that pale Brit with the risk of sunburn between us.

It was wonderfully warm as soon as I opened the balcony doors. The cooling spell over the house didn't wander pass the windows. I dropped my load of books on the glass table and stripped off my house sweater to feel the sun on my skin. The fresh air was good for me. I didn't feel like killing anyone anymore, that's a good sign.

After my initial praise the sun session my eyes fell on the stack of books. Back to work.

--

My Draco free time barely made an hour. He was out of the library and wandering around my home calling for me and opening every door along his way before I could acquire a decent tan. I was lying out on the wide stone railing with an interesting book that was defending the work of an ancient love guru and rationalizing that his work was still relevant despite the seven murders he committed during his decade of fact gathering. My eye twitched as the gentle rush of the ocean was interrupted by Draco opening my Study door and calling my name. 'Annabelle!'. Since I wasn't inside the immediate room he was prepared to close the door and continue his search before I sat up and caught his attention through the glass doors behind the large desk in my Study.

"There you are." He said relieved and shut the door behind him and hurried out to the balcony to join me. I swung my legs back onto the balcony and slid off the railing leaving the book about a murderer guru where I left it. As I shifted my shirt back into place I noticed the open letter and sealed envelope in his arms. It wasn't until I recognized the kind of paper he was holding that I stopped mentally groaning about Draco finding me. "I told you I'm not useless." He smiled holding up the papers and dropping the envelopes on the table in front of me. Two envelopes in all, and one still sealed. The obviously newly open envelope was the paper I recognized, and the letter parchment in Draco's hand was undeniably familiar. It would have matched perfectly well with the letter Mister Potter had held in his hands the night he allowed me to go search for the missing Draco.

Draco was holding a letter from Dumbledore. And it wasn't a letter I'd seen before. This was new; it was another letter from the grave. Dumbledore was just oozing with surprises, wasn't he?

_Review!_

_-BS_


	19. No Touchy

_Updating author is updating... enjoy!_

RECAP:

My Draco free time barely made an hour. He was out of the library and wandering around my home calling for me and opening every door along his way before I could acquire a decent tan. I was lying out on the wide stone railing with an interesting book that was defending the work of an ancient love guru and rationalizing that his work was still relevant despite the seven murders he committed during his decade of fact gathering. My eye twitched as the gentle rush of the ocean was interrupted by Draco opening my Study door and calling my name. 'Annabelle!'. Since I wasn't inside the immediate room he was prepared to close the door and continue his search before I sat up and caught his attention through the glass doors behind the large desk in my Study.

"There you are." He said relieved and shut the door behind him and hurried out to the balcony to join me. I swung my legs back onto the balcony and slid off the railing leaving the book about a murderer guru where I left it. As I shifted my shirt back into place I noticed the open letter and sealed envelope in his arms. It wasn't until I recognized the kind of paper he was holding that I stopped mentally groaning about Draco finding me. "I told you I'm not useless." He smiled holding up the papers and dropping the envelopes on the table in front of me. Two envelopes in all, and one still sealed. The obviously newly open envelope was the paper I recognized, and the letter parchment in Draco's hand was undeniably familiar. It would have matched perfectly well with the letter Mister Potter had held in his hands the night he allowed me to go search for the missing Draco.

Draco was holding a letter from Dumbledore. And it wasn't a letter I'd seen before. This was new; it was another letter from the grave. Dumbledore was just oozing with surprises, wasn't he?

Draco was still standing tall with that pompous superior look on his face when I took the unopened letter from his clutches. The smooth envelope had my name printed in small handwriting across the top right hand corner. The cramped letters were definitely Dumbledore's and the paper matched the stationary I bought Dumbledore for Christmas my fourth year at Hogwarts. He'd always made it a point to use the stationary I bought him for important matters just to let me know the gift was put to good use. The paper was an exact match to the letter and envelope Mister Potter held my last night in that dusty house.

Now that I was convinced the letter was authentic, I couldn't help but wonder where the hell Draco had gotten it. "Does that one have your name on it?" I asked gesturing to the opened letter still in his hands. He nodded still looking very pleased with himself. I noticed that he didn't step outside of the shadow the house had cast over half of the balcony. I knew the risk of sunburn was a proper threat to His Royal Paleness. "And do you suppose my letter follows along the same lines as yours?" I asked backing into the wrought iron patio chair behind me.

"I hope not." Draco said honestly. I watched him search for a seat on the balcony that wasn't in direct sunlight with no luck. I hid my smile from Draco as I got down to opening the letter; I slid my index finger over the top of the envelope and it promptly split open for me. Giving up his hopeless search for a shaded seat Draco forgot all Malfoy qualities and sat on the ground against the wall. Sitting on the ground was hardly proper of him if you ask me. "I was kind of hoping your letter contained better news than mine." He said brushing a pebble off his trousers.

"Here's hoping." I said toasting with my letter and then pulling it from the envelope.

Dearest Annabelle,

I'm sure you're wondering how Mr. Malfoy could have found this hidden letter from me in your house when I'd told you nothing about it. Truth of the matter is I'd always hoped you'd never need to read this. I knew you would never come back to this house unless circumstances forced you to return. And it is under the circumstances that have backed you into this corner that I must address.

No, the Death Eaters under Voldemort's control have not charmed Draco Malfoy into a homing beacon nor have they implanted him with an electrical tracking device. It was you they were following. More specifically, they were tracking the energy projection that happens when Draco and you are near each other.

I have not always been truthful with you, Annabelle. And on this matter I have struggled immensely. You are an amazingly talented woman and could have easily handled the truth had I been honest with you, but the circumstances of the time did not permit that route.

I am gone. And I am terribly sorry to be another person who has left you unwillingly. I am also sorry that I charmed you and Mr. Malfoy without consent. Please accept a dead man's apology and find within the envelope accompanying this letter the truth. Your partnership with Mr. Malfoy has made the two of you very dangerous. And I had only hoped to protect you as long as I could by charming you after the devastating outcome of your first encounter.

With this letter I am returning your memory. Forgive me for taking it.

Dumbledore

p.s Do not touch Mr. Malfoy until you have relived your memory and understand the situation. With this letter the first charm has been lifted and it is dangerous to touch each other. The second charm will soon dissipate, reviewing your memory may help along the process.

I let out the breath I hadn't realized I was holding when I read through the unsatisfyingly short letter the first time. Draco was being surprisingly quite as he waited for me to read my fill. Once I'd read the letter half way through my fifth go I noticed I was clutching the very envelope the letter referred to. I released it quickly and it fell to the stone topped table I was leaning heavily upon. I dropped the letter as well and pushed my fingers through the hair at my temples as my shoulders sagged and my head fell. My mentor, my teacher, my friend, the man who had helped me survive the death of my father had stolen from me.

I took a deep breath after a long stretch of nothing but the sound of the ocean knocking against the cliff below my balcony. When I raised my head Draco met my stare. I guess he had some positive points to his character even without his sex appeal. He knew when to be quiet and when I needed him to say something comforting. "He had our best interests at heart." He said still holding my gaze. I nodded and let the uncomfortable feeling Dumbledore's words had left me drift out of my system. Dumbledore had always had my best interests at heart, but he had also been the one to send me into the most dangerous situations of my life. I wasn't sure what to feel at the moment.

Draco was still looking at me, and for a mere second I remembered what I used to feel when his icy gaze rested on me, the second wasn't enough. "Dumbledore charmed us." I said letting my face rest against the glass tabletop, the cool surface felt good. Draco's eyes never left my face. "The letter confirms it." Though what exactly he did to us had yet to be revealed. The evidence in the letter convinced me Dumbledore had charmed us for our own safety. I glanced at Draco before looking back at my hands; apparently it was dangerous to touch him. I wonder what would happen if we touched.

I dragged the envelope into view and smoothed the paper I had accidentally crushed when I read the letter. I was supposed to find my stolen memory inside. I didn't look up as Draco shifted forward and stood. His neat trousers hadn't suffered from Draco's sit on the ground. "Whatever he did, Dumbledore specifically says not to touch you until I "understand the situation" he left us in." I remarked. Draco stopped his walk toward the table and I looked up.

"My letter didn't say anything about that." He admitted furrowing his light eyebrows. I shrugged adjusting my attention back onto the envelope, my memory was supposed to be inside. "Dumbledore just said that I should wait for you to read your letter and that our memory was in the envelope." Both of us turned our full attention to the bit of folded paper.

"I'm surprised he didn't mention it to you. Supposedly something horrible happens when we touch without Dumbledore's charms in place." I said as his eyebrows in turn rose in surprise. What Draco said led me to believe that his and my memory had been merged. I remember the technique from my studies at school; it was mostly practiced by Aurors. By compiling many different memories from a single incident and merging them together, you ended up with one silvery strand with virtually no missing information. Glancing once more at Draco I pried open my envelope and peaked inside.

Tucked into the envelope's corner, folded upon itself, and full of loops was our memory. With precise movements I fished out the end of the silvery strand between my fingers and freed it from the envelope. From feel I could tell the strand was thicker than the average memory, and this supported my theory that Draco and mines memory had been merged.

Slowly, I stood from my metal chair and never strayed my gaze from the precious memory between my thumb and finger. With two steps I stood before Draco and presented the memory. Usually, a pensive was required to view a memory, but because we were the rightful owners a bit of magic would give us the same results.

Tentatively, I looked up to meet Draco's eyes, and there I saw it again. It was only for a moment, but my eyes had viewed Draco like how I used to. He was still more handsome than was good for him, and the color of his eyes hadn't changed, but my body's reaction to his unchanged features had been drastically different. For a second I loved him.

The thought nearly caused me to drop the strand of memory. If Draco and I visited our stolen memory, the charm Dumbledore had inflicted would wear off; that's what his letter had said. And now it was clear to me that if Dumbledore's charm, that made me heartily dislike Draco, was removed I would be left defenseless. Without the protection of this charm I would be vulnerable.

Then I remembered that the state of mind that I currently occupied was unnatural. Dumbledore had created my dislike of Draco to protect us from whatever horrible reaction occurred when we were charm free. Those small glimpses through the charm's haze were my true feelings. Outside of this charm I was in love with Draco Malfoy. I just didn't know if I was ready for that or not.

Before Draco could reach for the other end of the memory, and start the viewing process, I pulled it out of his reach. Confused, his eyes met mine and a moment of clarity appeared through the charm again. "Oh," He said dropping his hand. He'd seen it too. I shifted uncomfortably and stared at the memory between my fingers. "If we look at our memory, this other charm that makes me dislike you will break and I'll be left defenseless against you again." He frowned. "I'll be lovesick and stupid again." The corner of my mouth twitched up and I shook my head as he frowned fiercely. Was it bad that I liked the idea that I made him feel stupid?

"The charm is already wearing thin. By viewing our memory it will just speed up the process." I said remembering Dumbledore's words. "Either way the charm is going to break. And we need only decide: do we let the charm wear off of its own accord? Or do we find out what is so important that Dumbledore had to steal our memory and leave us no recollection of it?"

"There's no question." He frowned reaching for the memory again. I nodded looking grim and holding out the strand. He was careful not to touch me as he pinched the other end and we pulled the silver tight. It was obvious we needed to know what our memory held. Dumbledore's letters had proven that this was very important. And perhaps the sooner we took back our memory the sooner we would realize what our prophecy meant. It didn't matter if we didn't know if we were ready to be in love yet or not, there were bigger things at stake.

With my free hand I retrieved my wand from my cardigan on the table and touched the tip to the taught memory. The next second we were falling smoothly from the sky and were pushed through the roof of greenhouse five at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

My feet were firmly placed on the grassy ground and my nose twitched at the familiar smells. I shivered as the effect of our trip left me thoroughly chilled and I regretted not bringing my cardigan along. Adult Draco touched down next to me and we each took a step away from the other least something horrible happen if we accidently touched. The silver strand was gone.

Professor Sprout was lecturing about the care and uses of a toxic crocus to the mixed class of sixth years, and all of the students were paired up at a tray of dirt. "There," Adult Draco said pointing near the exit of the greenhouse. Sitting on either side of a tray were the younger versions of us. Younger Annabelle was sifting through the tray with gloved hands and obviously not listening to the lecture. Her hair was tied up with one of Charlie's neon green hair ties, and her uniform was loose on her frame under her black robe. Aware of the adult Draco with me, I made my way through the class to get a closer look at myself. As I maneuvered through the memory of my classmates I noticed younger Draco wasn't paying attention to the lecture either. Younger Draco was wearing a pair of gloves that belonged to the classroom but he had no interest in the tray of dirt. He had his elbows resting on the tabletop as he stared intensely at younger Annabelle.

"Look at you," I said to adult Draco as I bent down to judge where younger Draco's gaze was resting. "You're being a little creeper in the middle of class." I suppose it was a credit to Draco that the younger version of him had his eyes leveled at younger Annabelle's face and not her chest. As I stood back up a warm feeling spread through my head and I remembered what I had been thinking during this particular memory. I blinked a few times and peered down into the dirt tray. Younger Annabelle wasn't paying attention because she already knew all there was to know about the toxic crocus and instead of paying attention she was arranging the bulbs into different shapes to amuse herself.

"I remember thinking you were too beautiful for me to pay attention to some lecture. And I couldn't figure out why no one else appreciated that." Adult Draco said. He blinked and I assumed his memory was reuniting with him too. He laughed suddenly. "The only reason I continued taking Herbology in our sixth year was because you were. I tried asking around about you but whenever I asked they said, "Who?" I thought I was going crazy," he rubbed his hand through his white blond hair and I couldn't help it as my eyes dreamily followed the movement. "But sometimes the professors would call on you in class. And there was that Hufflepuff girl that sat with you in the Great Hall, so I knew I wasn't the only one who could see you. On this morning I finally decided I was going to ask you to be my partner despite the disconcerting discovery that such a beauty could go unnoticed by nearly the entire school."

I smiled still looking at the intense stare younger Draco was giving younger Annabelle. I hadn't even realized Draco had been asking around school about me. "It was the don't-notice-me spell." I said looking at adult Draco. "Apparently, you could see through it." Both of us jumped when younger Draco in the memory leaned across the tray and said something to younger Annabelle. She ignored him.

Younger Draco frowned and repeated himself. "Annabelle Muntreales?" He asked touching his gloved hand to hers hoping to gain her attention. Younger Annabelle sharply looked up from the tray and met younger Draco's gaze. Someone had touched her, intentionally.

"Yes?" She said glancing down at their hands. Even through the gloves she could feel something strong and magnetic from his touch. "Um… Malfoy, right?" She asked feigning ignorance. She knew exactly who he was; she knew the entire student body by face and name.

"Draco," He corrected. Younger Draco was faintly aware that he was still touching her, and knew that if he tried it would be difficult to break the contact, but he didn't want to. "Say it," he said and younger Annabelle tilted her head eyeing him critically.

"Draco," She said and he smiled widely. Adult Draco also smiled, but full of conceit and smugness. I raised an eyebrow and he just grinned not wanting to interrupt our younger selves. It must be a boy thing, I decided. Younger Annabelle tentatively smiled back, obviously confused as to why she had done what he said without much thought on her part. In some section of her mind she realized that Draco Malfoy was dangerous to her. But she didn't care.

"I liked you." I said to adult Draco as we watched our younger selves innocently flirt through the lab. I met his gaze and my smile slowly faded, the charm was wearing off, evident by adult Draco's far from innocent stare and my sudden urge to kiss him. It was clear to me he'd been reintroduced with his libido. I frowned knowing we weren't allowed to touch each other. We both wisely kept our distance and watched our younger selves instead.

"You say you liked me." Adult Draco said keeping his eyes on our memory. "But I was fighting against how much I wanted you." He said as the memory merged with his mind. He was remembering what he had been thinking and feeling at the time too. My eyes widened in surprise and I stared at younger Draco a little more critically, boys were good at covering their intentions when they wanted to. "Much like now," he commented still not looking my way. I was feeling that girly shiver again as his words registered.

I took a deep breath trying to focus on the memory and not Draco. An achy feeling was spreading through my body that I knew only Draco could make go away. He was making it very difficult to stay away from him. With every second Dumbledore's charm was fading and I was realizing just how much Draco affected me. There was an upside though. The way Draco did anything to avoid looking at me, the way he was breathing heavily, and the way he held onto the table top as if to stop himself from moving from that spot. It was weird, but Draco's actions made me feel quite attractive. And I knew I was affecting him as much as he was me.

I was aware of my own heavy breathing and the increased temperature in the greenhouse when younger Annabelle raised her hand and Professor Sprout nodded dismissing her from class. Younger Draco rose from his seat quickly and frowned as younger Annabelle packed up her supplies and swung her bag onto her shoulder. "Sorry, Draco. I have to leave early to make it to my next lesson." Younger Annabelle said avoiding younger Draco's stare. "I'll see you next Tuesday." She said as she soundlessly left the greenhouse and younger Draco stood baffled. He thought things were going so nicely and she just leaves like that. He hadn't nearly progressed as much as he had planned to with Annabelle Muntreales.

"I couldn't wait a week to see you again." Adult Draco explained as we followed younger Draco out of the greenhouse, skipping the rest of the lesson. He was following younger Annabelle. I frowned as I realized what might happen in this memory. In school I would always leave early from my last class to meet my combat trainer, who was definitely not employed by the school.

Adult Draco and I had to hurry to catch up with our younger selves. I jogged to catch up with myself and Draco stayed back with his memory. I glanced over at myself as my thoughts and feelings returned in time with the memory. I was a bit worried about my next lesson, but the majority of my thoughts were about Draco's incredibly attractive eyes. It wasn't even just the color of his eyes that was so alluring; the way he had to squint to meet my glances in the afternoon light had given him a dark and rather fascinating air.

I sighed realizing I'd been head over heels for Draco far longer than I thought. For a moment I imagined where my relationship with the man would be if Dumbledore hadn't interfered and delayed our progress. We'd probably be living together and doing our best to keep a goldfish alive. I frowned remembering that it would be difficult to live with someone you found so enthralling without touching them. This inevitably brought me back to the disastrous memory of the last time Draco and I had touched. I blanched thinking of the horrible sex and pushed it from my mind. Back to the current memory, Annabelle.

From routine I knew younger Annabelle was making her way into the Forbidden Forest. My trainer preferred the forest to the sleepy town outside the school grounds so we had always met there for lessons. I looked back at the two Draco's wondering if they would come back into my memory or continue to follow at a distance. I also wondered if younger Annabelle would notice she was being followed; it wasn't like me to be so unobservant. Although, as my thoughts returned with the memory, I realized that my mind was happily occupied with images of Draco rather than my surroundings.

The school grounds were empty of any activity because everyone was occupied with their lessons. No one passed younger Annabelle's path on her way to the forest. She was adjusting her witches' robes as we broke the tree line and I gathered it must have been cold. I was still feeling the effects of Draco's intense stare in the greenhouse and hardly spared a thought for the dropping temperatures, especially when I could feel adult Draco's stare on me now.

I glanced back at him and noticed the two Draco's had fallen back quite a bit as younger Draco reevaluated his decision to follow Annabelle when she entered the Forbidden Forest. Adult Draco's eyes were inspecting my frame as I walked away from him and his predatory smile almost made me trip as my neglected heart thumped loudly in my ears. Oh, lord that man made it hard for me to keep my distance. I smiled prettily at him as younger Annabelle and I rounded a bend in the path and left the two Draco's at the entrance to the forest. I grinned as he noticeably miss stepped and grabbed a tree trunk before I lost sight of him completely. I suppose it's not fair of us to torture each other, we may never be able to touch one another again. I frowned.

Younger Annabelle sighed audibly in contentment and smiled as she thought back on her conversation with Draco. I'll admit I had always appreciated Draco on a physical level during our school days, but I never expected anything to come of it because people didn't notice me. But more importantly than that was that Draco Malfoy was a Malfoy, he was Slytherin, and he was a Death Eater in training. It went against all of the ideals I held at the time of this memory to even talk to Draco let alone flirt with him. What was going on with me on this particular day in time? Or was the prophesized bond between us so strong it even overrode my sensibilities?

It wasn't until younger Annabelle and I had entered a sun dappled clearing along our path that I noticed Younger Draco was calling after my younger self. So he had ventured into the forest after all. I wonder if adult Draco noticed his younger self acting out of character too. Was there something else amiss that he had observed.

"Annabelle?" Draco the student called into the trees, he sounded winded. Younger Annabelle stopped and turned looking startled. She glanced around at her surroundings looking for danger. When she was alone the forest was no threat to her, but would that change if Draco came running through disturbing the wildlife? Younger Draco found his way into the clearing and adult Draco wasn't far behind. Adult Draco jogged into the clearing still pale faced and composed as his younger self panted and dragged his forearm across his brow. Obviously, he had been working on his cardio since his school days. Both younger Annabelle and my mouths twitched as both Draco's took a moment to give us the once over. It was amusing to see the exact same look cross the features of Draco from the past and Draco from the present. Some things didn't change.

"You look good enough to eat." Adult Draco commented as his lascivious smile slid into place. I smiled sardonically and tilted my head, but chose not to reply. We needed to pay attention to the memory; things were starting to get interesting.

Younger Draco grinned widely at Annabelle temporarily forgetting what he had planned to say. In that light she looked simply magnificent. How could any of the hormone strung boys at school not notice this slice of heaven? He wondered.

"Draco, you really shouldn't be in here." Younger Annabelle said not noticing the appreciative look on Draco's face as she tensed observing their surroundings. Hopefully, the creatures of the forest would recognize that Draco was with her and leave him alone.

"No," he agreed straightening his uniform, "I probably shouldn't. But when it comes to you my judgment isn't what it used to be." He genuinely frowned at the thought of his compromised judgment. Annabelle Muntreales was a threat to his livelihood, but he couldn't summon the energy to do anything about it, which was another scary thought. Adult Draco also frowned as the same thoughts came back to him. Even now, the present Annabelle was a threat to his survival. He wanted nothing more than to place his hands all over her, but he knew if he did the outcome would be something even Dumbledore had feared. It was cruel that the one woman he wanted, he couldn't touch.

"I know what you mean." Younger Annabelle confessed finally meeting Draco's gaze. "It goes against everything I was taught. I shouldn't have agreed to be your partner, Draco. I shouldn't have talked to you. But I couldn't stop myself." She looked to Draco like he could explain what was going on. He was steadily making his way across the clearing, and she didn't even make a move to step back, what was wrong with her.

"I can't stop myself either." Younger Draco confessed. "I don't want to." Annabelle nodded agreeing with him. Her bag fell off her shoulder and she ignored it as her inkwell rolled free. The two students' eyes were locked as younger Draco steadily closed the distance between them. My eyes widened as I realized what was happening. I glanced at my Draco as he shadowed his younger self. He knew what was happening too.

"I can't explain why you even notice me, no one is supposed to." Her words were breathy. She still didn't move, allowing Draco to come to her. Finally he stopped inches from where Annabelle stood. She lifted her chin to meet his icy gaze as his eyes darkened with desire and his pupils dilated matching Annabelle's.

"I always noticed you." His voice was quite, their close proximity not requiring much effort to be heard. "You're beautiful, you're incredibly smart, and you're talented. I have always been mystified why no one else could see that." Annabelle rarely got compliments, and his honest quiet words were stealing her breath leaving her light headed. "Sometimes I feel like the only sane man on earth. Why can't everyone else see what I see?" he whispered leaning closer. With that he closed the miniscule distance left between them and touched his lips to hers.

Adult Draco and I both gasped as we were forced to take a sizable step back from our memory selves. I know it's not every day you find out Draco Malfoy was your first kiss and not that cute muggle from that one time in Lyon, but that wasn't even close to what was so startling now. I met adult Draco's eyes as the hot and heavy atmosphere between us shifted into a shared feeling of intense shock. The moment our younger selves had kissed, an intense ripple of raw energy had radiated from the contact, straight through Draco and me, and out into the forest. The fact that even in a memory I could feel the wave pass through me was alarming. I could hear the wildlife slow to an anxious stop and the birds hushed in fear. I think I was beginning to understand why Draco and I should avoid physical contact.

_Don't forget to review, lovelies!_

_-BS_


End file.
